Research Catalog

Title

The logic of reliable inquiry / Kevin T. Kelly.

Author

Kelly, Kevin T.

Publication

New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.

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Holdings

Details

Description

xiv, 434 pages : illustrations; 24 cm.

Summary

• There are many proposed aims for scientific inquiry - to explain or predict events, to confirm or falsify hypotheses, or to find hypotheses that cohere with our other beliefs in some logical or probabilistic sense. This book is devoted to a different proposal - that the logical structure of the scientist's method should guarantee eventual arrival at the truth, given the scientist's background assumptions.
• Interest in this methodological property, called "logical reliability," stems from formal learning theory, which draws its insights not from the theory of probability, but from the theory of computability. Kelly first offers an accessible explanation of formal learning theory, then goes on to develop and explore a systematic framework in which various standard learning-theoretic results can be seen as special cases of simpler and more general considerations.
• Finally, Kelly clarifies the relationship between the resulting framework and other standard issues in the philosophy of science, such as probability, causation, and relativism. Extensively illustrated with figures by the author, The Logic of Reliable Inquiry assumes only introductory knowledge of basic logic and computability theory. It is a major contribution to the literature and will be essential reading for scientists, statiticians, psychologists, linguists, logicians, and philosophers.

Series Statement

Logic and computation in philosophy

Uniform Title

Logic and computation in philosophy.

Subject

• Research > Methodology
• Research > Evaluation
• Logic, Symbolic and mathematical
• Cognitive learning theory

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. xxx-xxx) and index.

Contents

1. Introduction -- 2. Reliable Inquiry -- 3. The Demons of Passive Observation -- 4. Topology and Ideal Hypothesis Assessment -- 5. Reducibility and the Game of Science -- 6. The Demons of Computability -- 7. Computers in Search of the Truth -- 8. So Much Time, Such Little Brains -- 9. The Logic of Ideal Discovery -- 10. Computerized Discovery -- 11. Prediction -- 12. Inquiry Concerning First-Order Theories -- 13. Probability and Reliability -- 14. Experiment and Causal Inference -- 15. Relativism and Reliability -- 16. Closing Conversation.

ISBN

0195091957 (alk. paper)

LCCN

94017166

OCLC

• 30543762
• ocm30543762

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries