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Accepted manuscript

Inferring to the Best Explanation from Uncertain Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2025

Finnur Dellsén*
Affiliation:
University of Iceland University of Inland Norway University of Oslo
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Abstract

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This paper presents a new problem for the inference rule commonly known as Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE). The problem is that uncertainty about parts of one’s evidence may undermine the inferrability of a hypothesis that would provide the best explanation of that evidence, especially in cases where there is an alternative hypothesis that would provide a better explanation of only the more certain pieces of evidence. A potential solution to the problem is sketched, in which IBE is generalized to handle uncertain evidence by invoking a notion of evidential robustness.

Information

Type
Contributed Paper
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Philosophy of Science Association