The Objective Confirmation of Hypotheses
@article{Stemmer1981TheOC,
title={The Objective Confirmation of Hypotheses},
author={Nathan Stemmer},
journal={Canadian Journal of Philosophy},
year={1981},
volume={11},
pages={395 - 404}
}According to Nicod's criterion of confirmation ([7]), a hypothesis of the form ‘All P are Q’ is confirmed by its positive instances, i.e. by entities that are P and Q. It is well known, however, that the criterion gives origin to counterintuitive results. For example, it sanctions the confirmation of ‘All nonblacks are nonravens’ by a nonblack nonraven. Since this hypothesis is logically equivalent to ‘All ravens are black,’ it follows that the criterion indirectly sanctions the…
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