Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    A more informative theory cannot be more likely to be tru... — Carmelics
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Modality & Possibility
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Part of a larger discussion

    Challenges→Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE) either contradicts itself or equivocates, and therefore cannot coherently describe inductive or evidential support.

    A more informative theory cannot be more likely to be true than a less informative theory (elementary logical point).

    Modality & PossibilityTruth & Knowledge
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.

    No one has weighed in yet. Be the first to share reasons for or against this statement.

    Sign in or register to share your perspective on this statement.

    Topics

    Modality & PossibilityTruth & Knowledge

    Notable Defenders

    van Fraassencontemporaryvan Fraassen 1983, Sect. 2

    Connections

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Browse more in Modality & Possibility
    Related propositions within the same area of thought.

    2 topics

    Philosophy of Language3 linkedCausation1 linked

    Related

    Any account of evidential support that requires greater informativeness to groun...IBE claims that more explanatory theories receive greater inductive or evidentia...Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE) either contradicts itself or equivocates...It is part of the meaning of 'explanation' that if one theory is more explanator...

    Similar

    A theory with more content has more ways of being false than a theory ...83%A theory can be more explanatory without being more informative83%A theory that is an extension of another theory has more ways of being...81%The premise that a theory must be more informative in order to be more...81%

    Source

    AI-extracted
    SEP: abduction
    View source passageHide passage
    The first objection has as a premise that it is part of the meaning of “explanation” that if one theory is more explanatory than another, the former must be more informative than the latter (see, e.g., van Fraassen 1983, Sect. 2). The alleged problem then is that it is “an elementary logical point that a more informative theory cannot be more likely to be true [and thus] attempts to describe inductive or evidential support through features that require information (such as ‘Inference to the Best

    Details

    Type
    premise
    Perspectives
    0 (0 for, 0 against)
    Edits
    1 edit

    Open for perspectives

    This idea is waiting for its first supporting or challenging perspective.

    Share the first perspective