Abstract
The aim of the present paper is, first, to give an explication of the very phrase “best explanation”, and second, to give some suggestions about its methodological use. The explication on offer will be given in terms of two set-theoretical criteria of comparing the relative explanatory power of alternatives. One criterion is designed to compare rival hypotheses put forward in the framework of a fixed background knowledge, the other is designed to compare an original background knowledge with its attempted revision. The proposal will be claimed to resolve the problems of Duhemian variety as well as the incommensurability problem.
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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
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Grobler, A. (2011). An Explication of the Use of Inference to the Best Explanation. In: Dieks, D., Gonzalez, W., Hartmann, S., Uebel, T., Weber, M. (eds) Explanation, Prediction, and Confirmation. The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1180-8_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1180-8_5
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Online ISBN: 978-94-007-1180-8
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