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Inference to the Best Explanation: Is it Really Different from Mill's Methods?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Steven Rappaport
Steven Rappaport*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy De Anza College
*
‡Send requests for reprints to the author, Department of Philosophy, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA 95014.
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Abstract

Peter Lipton has attempted to flesh out a model of Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE) by clarifying explanation in terms of a causal model. But Lipton's account of explanation makes an adequate explanation depend on a principle which is virtually identical to Mill's Method of Difference. This has the result of collapsing IBE on Lipton's account of it into causal inference as conceived by the Causal-Inference model of induction. According to this model, many of our inductions are inferences from effects to their probable causes, and Mill's Methods are canons to guide such inferences. Thus, Lipton's account of IBE fails to represent an advance over the already familiar Causal-Inference Model of induction.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 63 , Issue 1 , March 1996 , pp. 65 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

I want to thank an anonymous referee for useful comments on this paper.

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