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Discovery and Ampliative Inference

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

James Blachowicz
James Blachowicz*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Loyola University of Chicago
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Abstract

An inference to a new explanation may be both logically non-ampliative and epistemically ampliative. Included among the premises of the latter form is the explanandum—a unique premise which is capable of embodying what we do not know about the matter in question, as well as legitimate aspects of what we do know. This double status points to a resolution of the Meno paradox. Ampliative inference of this sort, it is argued, has much in common with Nickles' idea of discoverability and, together with the mapping and correction procedures (briefly summarized) required for such inference, may suggest a broadening of the concept of justification which would incorporate much of what has been defended in theories of discovery.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , September 1989 , pp. 438 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

I am indebted to Thomas Nickles for his comments on an earlier version of this paper.

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