The Advantages of Theft over Toil: The Design Inference and Arguing from Ignorance

@article{Wilkins2001TheAO,
  title={The Advantages of Theft over Toil: The Design Inference and Arguing from Ignorance},
  author={John S. Wilkins and W. Elsberry},
  journal={Biology and Philosophy},
  year={2001},
  volume={16},
  pages={709-722}
}
Intelligent design theorist William Dembski hasproposed an ``explanatory filter'' fordistinguishing between events due to chance,lawful regularity or design. We show that ifDembski's filter were adopted as a scientificheuristic, some classical developments inscience would not be rational, and thatDembski's assertion that the filter reliablyidentifies rarefied design requires ignoringthe state of background knowledge. Ifbackground information changes even slightly,the filter's conclusion will… 
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25 Citations
Background Citations
11
Methods Citations
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25 Citations

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