ENGLISH

Hume's Problem: Induction and the Justification of Belief

By Colin Howson

Book information

Publisher
Oxford University Press, USA
Year
2003
ISBN
019825038X, 9780198250388
LCC
BC91
Google Books ID
pNfwrSTzz8cC
Open Library ID
OL7398289M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
1 MB (1345867 bytes)
Pages
183\183
Orientation
no
Scanned
no
Time added
2012-03-17 06:00:00

Description

In the mid-eighteenth century David Hume argued that successful prediction tells us nothing about the truth of the predicting theory. But physical theory routinely predicts the values of observable magnitudes within very small ranges of error. The chance of this sort of predictive success without a true theory suggests that Hume's argument is flawed. However, Colin Howson argues that there is no flaw and examines the implications of this disturbing conclusion; he also offers a solution to one of the central problems of Western philosophy, the problem of induction.

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