Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-lrblm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-28T02:33:58.297Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inductive Logic With Causal Modalities: A Probabilistic Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Soshichi Uchii
Soshichi Uchii*
Affiliation:
Kyoto University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper tries to extend Hintikka's inductive logic so that we can confirm a causally necessary statement. For this purpose, a joint system of inductive logic and logic of causal modalities is constructed. This system can offer a plausible explication of the distinction between nomic and accidental universality, as well as a good formulation of a causal law. And the transition from actuality to causal necessity is construed, in this system, as essentially probabilistic; i.e. no statements about actuality can entail a necessary statement, but certain statements about actuality can single out a most probable causal law.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , June 1972 , pp. 162 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 by The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

This paper is based on the second half of my Ph.D. dissertation [15] submitted to the University of Michigan; the essence of the first half will be published in another paper [16]. I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Professor Arthur Burks.

References

REFERENCES

[1] Burks, A. “The Logic of Causal Propositions.” Mind 60 (1951): 363–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Burks, A. “Dispositional Statements.” Philosophy of Science 22 (1955): 175–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[3] Burks, A. “On the Presuppositions of Induction.” Review of Metaphysics 8 (1955): 574–611.Google Scholar
[4] Burks, A. Cause, Chance, and Reason. Unpublished book originally copyrighted in 1963 and 1964. References are made to the latest revised version, 1971.Google Scholar
[5] Carnap, R. The Logical Foundations of Probability. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.Google Scholar
[6] Carnap, R. The Continuum of Inductive Methods. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1952.Google Scholar
[7] Hempel, C. G. and Oppenheim, P. “Studies in the Logic of Explanation.” Philosophy of Science 15 (1948): 135–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[8] Hintikka, J. “Distributive Normal Forms in First-Order Logic.” In Formal Systems and Recursive Functions, edited by J. N. Crossley and M. A. E. Dummett, pp. 48–91. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1965.10.1016/S0049-237X(08)71684-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[9] Hintikka, J. “Towards a Theory of Inductive Generalization.” In Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science, edited by Y. Bar-Hillel, pp. 274–288. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1965.Google Scholar
[10] Hintikka, J. “On a Combined System of Inductive Logic.” Acta Philosophica Fennica 18 (1965): 21–30.Google Scholar
[11] Hintikka, J. “A Two-Dimensional Continuum of Inductive Methods.” Aspects of Inductive Logic. Edited by Hintikka, J. and Suppes, P. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1966.Google Scholar
[12] Hintikka, J. “Induction by Enumeration and Induction by Elimination.” In The Problem of Inductive Logic, edited by I. Lakatos, pp. 191–216. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1968.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[13] Kripke, S. A. “Semantical Analysis of Modal Logic I: Normal Modal Propositional Calculi.” Zeitschrift für mathematische Logik und Grundlagen der Mathematik 9 (1963): 67–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[14] Kripke, S. A. “Semantical Considerations on Modal Logic.” Acta Philosophica Fennica 16 (1963): 83–94.Google Scholar
[15] Uchii, S. “The Confirmation of Causal Laws.” Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the University of Michigan, 1971; available in microfilm from University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
[16] Uchii, S. “Inductive Logic with Causal Modalities: A Deterministic Approach.” Synthese, (forthcoming).Google Scholar