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    Carmelics

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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Therefore, inference to the best explanation licenses at least structural theoretical knowledge of reality, contra the agnosticism the claim demands.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.IBE selects among hypotheses based on pragmatic virtues (simplicity, coherence) that need not track structural reality accurately.
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    • 2.History shows empirically successful theories with incompatible structures (Ptolemy vs. Copernicus, classical vs. quantum mechanics).
      ?

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    • 3.Bestness of explanation is relative to explanatory goals and frameworks, not guaranteed to reveal reality's fundamental structure.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Inference to best explanation succeeds when rivals are equally empirically adequate but differ structurally, requiring structural knowledge.
      ?

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    • 2.Scientific progress demonstrably relies on structural claims (atoms, forces, fields) that enable novel predictions beyond current data.
      ?

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    • 3.If structural knowledge is entirely inaccessible, the explanatory superiority appealed to in IBE becomes unintelligible or circular.
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