Abstract
I outline four competing probabilistic accounts of contrastive evidential support and consider various considerations that might help arbitrate between these. The upshot of the discussion is that the so-called ‘Law of Likelihood’ is to be preferred to any of the alternatives considered.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chandler J. (2007) Solving the tacking problem with contrast classes. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 58(3): 489–502
Fitelson B. (1999) The plurality of Bayesian measures of confirmation and the problem of measure sensitivity. Philosophy of Science 66: 362–378
Fitelson, B. (2001). Studies in Bayesian confirmation theory. PhD Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.
Fitelson, B. (2003). Review of Richard Swinburne (Ed.) Bayes’s theorem. Notre Dame philosophical reviews.
Fitelson B. (2007) Likelihoodism, Bayesianism, and relational confirmation. Synthese 156(3): 473–489
Fitelson B. (2008) A decision procedure for probability calculus with applications. The Review of Symbolic Logic 1: 111–125
Forster M. R., Sober E. (2004) Why likelihood. In: Taper M., Lele S. (eds) The nature of scientific evidence. Chicago University Press, Chicago, IL, pp 153–165
Garfinkel A. (1981) Forms of explanation: Rethinking the questions in social theory. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT
Hacking I. (1964) On the foundations of statistics. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 15(57): 1–26
Hacking I. (1965) Logic of statistical inference. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Hitchcock C. R. (1996) The role of contrast in causal and explanatory claims. Synthese 107: 395–419
Hitchcock C. R. (1999) Contrastive explanation and the demons of determinism. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 50: 585–612
Leeds, D. (ms). Other minds, support and likelihoods.
Lipton P. (1990) Contrastive explanation. In: Knowles D. (Ed.) Explanation and its limits. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 247–266
McLennen E. F. (1990) Rationality and dynamic choice. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Royall R. (1997) Statistical evidence: A likelihood paradigm. Chapman and Hall, New York
Ruben D. (1987) Explaining contrastive facts. Analysis 47: 35–37
Sober E. (2005) Is drift a serious alternative to natural selection as an explanation of complex adaptive traits? In: O’Hear A. (Ed.) Philosophy, biology and life. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Temple D. (1988) Discussion: The contrast theory of why-questions. Philosophy of Science 55: 141–151
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chandler, J. Contrastive confirmation: some competing accounts. Synthese 190, 129–138 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-010-9845-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-010-9845-9