No CrossRef data available.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2022
Inductive logic studies the structural properties of epistemic probabilities. Its basic task is to determine how various factors may influence rational degrees of belief in the truth of hypotheses on the basis of some evidence. Its distinctive feature in comparison with other approaches to epistemic probabilities is the attention paid to the idea - not in vogue during the 1940's when Carnap started his program, but very influential in much of the contemporary work within the history and the philosophy of science - that our knowledge claims, or our rational beliefs about the reality, are significantly influenced or preconditioned. by language. While dependence on (formal) language is one of the “logical” aspects of inductive probabilities, the role of other relevant, possibly extra-logical, determinants of rational degrees of belief is expressed, within the systems of inductive logic, by means of at most a finite number of parameters.