Nomic Probability and the Foundations of Induction

✍ Scribed by John L. Pollock

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 360
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In this book Pollock deals with the subject of probabilistic reasoning, making general philosophical sense of objective probabilities and exploring their relationship to the problem of induction. He argues that probability is fundamental not only to physical science, but to induction, epistemology, the philosophy of science and much of the reasoning relevant to artificial intelligence. Pollock's main claim is that the fundamental notion of probability is nomic--that is, it involves the notion of natural law, valid across possible worlds. The various epistemic and statistical conceptions of probability, he demonstrates, are derived from this nomic notion. He goes on to provide a theory of statistical induction, an account of computational principles allowing some probabilities to be derived from others, an account of acceptance rules, and a theory of direct inference.

✦ Table of Contents

Title Page......Page 1
Preface......Page 5
CONTENTS......Page 13
1. PHYSICAL PROBABILITY......Page 19
2. COMPUTATIONAL PRINCIPLES......Page 55
3. ACCEPTANCE RULES......Page 91
4. DIRECT INFERENCE AND DEFINITE PROBABILITIES......Page 124
5. INDUCTION......Page 165
6. RECAPITULATION......Page 203
7. EXOTIC COMPUTATIONAL PRINCIPLES......Page 219
8: ADVANCED TOPICS: DEFEASIDLE REASONING......Page 236
9. ADVANCED TOPICS: ACCEPTANCE RULES......Page 260
10. ADVANCED TOPICS: DIRECT INFERENCE......Page 283
11. ADVANCED TOPICS: INDUCTION......Page 312
Bibliography......Page 339
INDEX......Page 351