Verisimilitude and belief change for nomic conjunctive theories

Gustavo Cevolani*, Roberto Festa, Theo A. F. Kuipers

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)
3 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In this paper, we address the problem of truth approximation through theory change, asking whether revising our theories by newly acquired data leads us closer to the truth about a given domain. More particularly, we focus on "nomic conjunctive theories", i.e., theories expressed as conjunctions of logically independent statements concerning the physical or, more generally, nomic possibilities and impossibilities of the domain under inquiry. We define both a comparative and a quantitative notion of the verisimilitude of such theories, and identify suitable conditions concerning the (partial) correctness of acquired data, under which revising our theories by data leads us closer to "the nomic truth", construed as the target of scientific inquiry. We conclude by indicating some further developments, generalizations, and open issues arising from our results.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3307-3324
Number of pages18
JournalSynthese
Volume190
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov-2013

Keywords

  • Nomic verisimilitude
  • Truthlikeness
  • Truth approximation
  • Belief change
  • Belief revision
  • AGM
  • TRUTH
  • REVISION

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