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Approximate Generalizations and their Idealization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Ernest W. Adams
Ernest W. Adams*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
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Extract

This paper describes recent work on a theory of approximate generalizations which, following J.S. Mill (1895, Book III Chapter XXIII), are propositions often expressed in the form Most A's are B's, and whose degrees of truth (“probabilities’ in Mill's terms) are the proportions of A's that are B's. Earlier work by Ian Carlstrom and myself studied the logic of approximate generalizations — the theory of necessary connections among their degrees of truth — and basic ideas and results of that work will be briefly summarized here, along with a related extension of this study. However our present concern is primarily with two matters having to do with the effects of small changes in the extensions of predicates on degrees of truth. One is the question of which generalizations are continuous in that small changes in the extensions of “empirical” predicates would not entail large changes in the degrees of truth of the generalizations.

Type
Part V. Measurement, Verisimilitude and Decision
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1982 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1982 , 1982 , pp. 199 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1982

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