Belief revision in the service of scientific discovery

Eric Martin; Daniel Osherson

doi:10.1016/S0165-4896(98)00008-0

Belief revision in the service of scientific discovery

Eric Martin
, Daniel Osherson

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Two non-bayesian approaches to belief fixation have been explored in recent years. On the one hand, the theory of belief revision has been stimulated by the AGM tradition and its successors. On the other hand, the theory of scientific inquiry has made progress clarifying the mathematics of reliable discovery. In the present paper we discuss the relation between the two approaches. In particular, we consider whether they allow scientific inquiry to be represented as a process of rational hypothesis selection in the face of data. The present paper overviews a theory developed in detail in [E. Martin and D. Osherson. Scientific discovery based on belief revision. Journal of Symbolic Logic, in press., E. Martin and D. Osherson. Elements of scientific inquiry, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1998.]. The exposition is designed to be of interest to researchers in diverse fields.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	57-68
Number of pages	12
Journal	Mathematical social sciences
Volume	36
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-4896(98)00008-0
State	Published - Jul 1 1998

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Sociology and Political Science
General Social Sciences
General Psychology
Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty

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10.1016/S0165-4896(98)00008-0

Cite this

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title = "Belief revision in the service of scientific discovery",

abstract = "Two non-bayesian approaches to belief fixation have been explored in recent years. On the one hand, the theory of belief revision has been stimulated by the AGM tradition and its successors. On the other hand, the theory of scientific inquiry has made progress clarifying the mathematics of reliable discovery. In the present paper we discuss the relation between the two approaches. In particular, we consider whether they allow scientific inquiry to be represented as a process of rational hypothesis selection in the face of data. The present paper overviews a theory developed in detail in [E. Martin and D. Osherson. Scientific discovery based on belief revision. Journal of Symbolic Logic, in press., E. Martin and D. Osherson. Elements of scientific inquiry, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1998.]. The exposition is designed to be of interest to researchers in diverse fields.",

author = "Eric Martin and Daniel Osherson",

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AU - Osherson, Daniel

N1 - Funding Information: Research support was provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant number 21-32399.91. We thank an anonymous referee for helpful comments.

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Belief revision in the service of scientific discovery

Abstract

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

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