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    The Uniformity Principle cannot be justified by arguing t... — Carmelics
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    Home/Skepticism
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    The Uniformity Principle cannot be justified by arguing that it works, because that justification itself requires an inductive argument, making the reasoning circular

    SkepticismTruth & Knowledge
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Any justification of the Uniformity Principle that appeals to its past success must itself assume future resemblance to past instances to count as evidence.
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    • 2.Assuming future resemblance to past instances just is the Uniformity Principle, so the argument smuggles in precisely what it seeks to establish.
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    • 3.Hume's fork establishes that only relations of ideas or matters of fact can ground justification, and the Uniformity Principle fits neither category non-circularly.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Reichenbach's pragmatic vindication concedes that induction cannot be proven valid, only that if any method works, induction will—which is itself a conditional requiring inductive support.
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    • 2.A justification that succeeds only if induction already succeeds provides no independent epistemic leverage against the skeptic who doubts induction from the outset.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Inductive inferences presuppose the Uniformity Principle
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    • 2.The presupposition of the Uniformity Principle must itself be supported by an argument for the inductive inference to be justified
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    • 3.The natural justification for the Uniformity Principle is that it has worked in past instances
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    Related

    A justification that succeeds only if induction already succeeds provides no ind...Any justification of the Uniformity Principle that appeals to its past success m...Assuming future resemblance to past instances just is the Uniformity Principle, ...Hume's fork establishes that only relations of ideas or matters of fact can grou...
    +6 moreShow less
    Inductive inferences presuppose the Uniformity PrincipleKnowing that the Uniformity Principle worked in the past is insufficient unless ...Reichenbach's pragmatic vindication concedes that induction cannot be proven val...The claim that the Uniformity Principle will work in the future must itself be s...The natural justification for the Uniformity Principle is that it has worked in ...The presupposition of the Uniformity Principle must itself be supported by an ar...

    Similar

    A justification that presupposes what it is trying to establish is cir...83%Any justification for inductive reasoning must appeal to either an ind...81%The argument that basing justification of inductive inference on a pro...80%Hume's inductive justification for the Copy Principle is exceedingly w...80%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: induction-problem
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    Hume claims that such arguments presuppose the Uniformity Principle (UP). According to premises P7 and P8, this supposition also needs to be supported by an argument in order that the inductive inference be justified. A natural idea is that we can argue for the Uniformity Principle on the grounds that “it works”. We know that it works, because past instances of arguments which relied upon it were found to be successful. This alone however is not sufficient unless we have reason to think that
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit