The KLI
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News Details

Simon Huttegger
2024-11-29
Inductive Logic: Its Philosophy and Contemporary Significance

To join the KLI Colloquia via Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86548837670?pwd=AWm1v389npLyoJD5e01a9rjMXD7FP6.1
Meeting ID: 865 4883 7670
Passcode: 342640

 

Topic description / abstract:

Rudolf Carnap spent much of the last 25 years of his career developing an inductive logic: a logic of reasoning from the known to the unknown that is derived from first principles and, at the same time, faithful to how scientists evaluate hypotheses and make predictions based on observations. In my talk, I will review what I take to be the main contribution of Carnap's inductive logic. I will then connect it to developments in Bayesian statistics, in particular probabilistic symmetries and invariance principles and developments in predictive inference, and suggest ways in which it can be enriched to supply a more comprehensive account of scientific inference. I will end with some philosophical reflections on the kind of model of scientific reasoning that inductive logic gives rise to.

 

Biographical note:

Simon Huttegger is a Chancellor's Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of California Irvine (UCI). After having studied at the University of Salzburg, he spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Evolution and Cognition Research before moving to UCI. He has worked on game theory, decision theory, measurement in biology, the foundations of probability theory and inductive reasoning.