Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Inference to the best explanation, coherence and other explanatory virtues

  • Published:
Synthese Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article generalizes the explanationist account of inference to the best explanation (IBE). It draws a clear distinction between IBE and abduction and presents abduction as the first step of IBE. The second step amounts to the evaluation of explanatory power, which consist in the degree of explanatory virtues that a hypothesis exhibits. Moreover, even though coherence is the most often cited explanatory virtue, on pain of circularity, it should not be treated as one of the explanatory virtues. Rather, coherence should be equated with explanatory power and considered to be derivable from the other explanatory virtues: unification, explanatory depth and simplicity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aliseda, A. (1997). Seeking explanations: Abduction in logic, philosophy of science and artificial intelligence. Ph.D. thesis, Stanford University.

  • Aliseda A. (2006) Abductive reasoning, Vol. 330 of synthese library. Springer, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes E. (1995) Inference to the loveliest explanation. Synthese 103(2): 251–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartelborth T. (1999) Coherence and explanations. Erkenntnis 50(2–3): 209–224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartelborth T. (2002) Explanatory unification. Synthese 130(1): 91–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beebe J. R. (2009) The abductivist reply to skepticism. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 79(3): 605–636

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • BonJour L. (1985) The structure of empirical knowledge. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Bovens L., Hartmann S. (2003) Bayesian epistemology. Clarendon Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Campos D. G. (2009) On the distinction between Peirce’s abduction and Lipton’s Inference to the best explanation. Synthese 180(3): 419–442

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carrier M. (2009) Underdetermination as an epistemological test tube: Expounding hidden values of the scientific community. Synthese 180(2): 189–204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carruthers P. (2006) The architecture of the mind: Massive modularity and the flexibility of thought. Oxford University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Day T., Kincaid H. (1994) Putting inference to the best explanation in its place. Synthese 98(2): 271–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Douven, I. (2011). Abduction. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2011 ed.). Retrieved 29 June 2011, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2011/entries/abduction/.

  • Douven I., Horsten L. (1998) Earman on underdetermination and empirical indistinguishability. Erkenntnis 49(3): 303–320

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fitelson B. (2003) A probabilistic theory of coherence. Analysis 63(3): 194–199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fodor J. A. (2000) The mind doesn’t work that way: The scope and limits of computational psychology. MIT Press, Cambridge MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabbay D. M., Woods J. (2005) The reach of abduction: Insight and trial, Vol. 2 of a practical logic of cognitive systems. Elsevier, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Glass D. H. (2007) Coherence measures and inference to the best explanation. Synthese 157(3): 275–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glass, D. H. (2010). Inference to the best explanation: Does it track truth? Synthese doi:10.1007/s11229-010-9829-9.

  • Harman G. H. (1965) The inference to the best explanation. The Philosohical Review 74(1): 88–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harman G. H. (1968) Enumerative induction as inference to the best explanation. The Journal of Philosophy 65(18): 529–533

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hintikka J. (1998) What is abduction? The fundamental problem of contemporary epistemology. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 34(3): 503–533

    Google Scholar 

  • Hitchcock C., Woodward J. (2003) Explanatory generalizations. Part II. Plumbing explanatory depth. Noûs 37(2): 181–199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huemer M. (2009a) Explanationist aid for the theory of inductive logic. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 60(2): 345–375

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huemer M. (2009b) When is parsimony a virtue?. The Philosophical Quarterly 59(235): 216–236

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Josephson, J. R., Josephson, S. G. (eds) (2003) Abductive inference: Computation, philosophy, technology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn T. S. (1996) The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kuipers T. A. F. (2002) Beauty, a road to the truth. Synthese 131(3): 291–328

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lehrer K. (1990) Theory of knowledge. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis C. I. (1946) An analysis of knowledge and valuation. Open Court, LaSalle, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipton P. (1993) Is the best good enough?. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 43: 89–104

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipton P. (2004) Inference to the best explanation. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Lombrozo T. (2007) Simplicity and probability in causal explanation. Cognitive Psychology 55(3): 232–257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lycan W. G. (1988) Judgement and justification. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Magnani L. (2001) Abduction, reason, and science: Processes of discovery and explanation. Kluwer/Plenum, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McGrew T. (2003) Confirmation, heuristics, and explanatory reasoning. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 54(4): 553–567

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKaughan D. J. (2008) From ugly duckling to swan: C. S. Peirce, abduction, and the pursuit of scientific theories. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 44(3): 446–468

    Google Scholar 

  • McMullin E. (1996) Epistemic virtue and theory appraisal. In: Douven I., Horsten L. (eds) Realism in the sciences. Leuven University Press, Leuven, pp 13–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Minnameier G. (2004) Peirce-suit of truth: Why inference to the best explanation and abduction ought not to be confused. Erkenntnis 60(1): 75–105

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Myrvold W. C. (2003) A Bayesian account of the virtue of unification. Philosophy of Science 70(2): 399–423

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Niiniluoto I. (1999a) Critical scientific realism. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Niiniluoto I. (1999b) Defending abduction. Philosophy of Science 66(Supplement): S436–S451

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peirce C. S. (1934) The collected papers of charles Sanders Peirce. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Peirce C. S. (1935) The collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Peirce C. S. (1958) The collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Psillos S. (1999) Scientific realism: How science tracks truth. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Psillos S. (2002) Simply the best: A case for abduction. In: Kakas A. C., Sadri F. (eds) Computational logic: Logic programming and beyond, Vol. 2408 of lecture notes in computer science. Springer, Berlin, pp 605–625

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Psillos S. (2007) The fine structure of inference to the best explanation. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 74(2): 441–448

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Read S. J., Marcus-Newhall A. (1993) Explanatory coherence in social explanations: A parallel distributed processing account. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65(3): 429–447

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reichenbach H. (1956) The direction of time. University of California Press, Los Angeles, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Rescher N. (1973) The coherence theory of truth. Clarendon Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Salmon W. C. (2001) Reflections of a bashful Bayesian: A reply to Lipton. In: Hon G., Rakover S. S. (eds) Explanation: Theoretical approaches and applications. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 121–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Schurz G. (1999) Explanation as unification. Synthese 120(1): 95–114

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schurz G. (2008) Patterns of abduction. Synthese 164(2): 201–234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simon, A. H. (2001). Science seeks parsimony, not simplicity: Searching for pattern in phenomena. In A. Zellner, H. A. Keuzenkamp, & M. McAleer (Eds.), Simplicity, inference and modelling: Keeping it sophisticatedly simple (pp. 32–72). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Sober, E. (2001). What is the problem of simplicity? In A. Zellner, H. A. Keuzenkamp, & M. McAleer (Eds.), Simplicity, inference and modelling: Keeping it sophisticatedly simple (pp. 13–31). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Thagard P. (1978) The best explanation: criteria for theory choice. The Journal of Philosophy 75(2): 76–92

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thagard P. (1989) Explanatory coherence. Behavioural and Brain Sciences 12: 435–502

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thagard P. (1993) Computational philosophy of science. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Thagard P. (2007) Coherence, truth, and the development of scientific knowledge. Philosophy of Science 74(1): 28–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Fraassen B. C. (1980) The scientific image. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Woodward J. (2003) Making things happen: A theory of causal explanation. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Zellner, A., Keuzenkamp, H. A., McAleer, M. (eds) (2001) Simplicity, inference and modelling: Keeping it sophisticatedly simple. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Logic and History of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, Vilnius University, Universiteto g. 9/1, 311 k., 01513, Vilnius, Lithuania

    Adolfas Mackonis

Authors
  1. Adolfas Mackonis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adolfas Mackonis.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mackonis, A. Inference to the best explanation, coherence and other explanatory virtues. Synthese 190, 975–995 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-011-0054-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-011-0054-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation