Abduction, Bayesianism and Best Explanations in Physics

Authors

Keywords:

Scientific explanation, abduction, inference to the best explanation, Bayesianism, pulsars, gravitational waves

Abstract

This article claims the validity of abductive reasoning, or inference to the best explanation, as a practice of discovery of explanatory scientific hypotheses. Along the way to achieve this objective I present here a series of arguments that question the feasibility of Bayesianism as a theory of scientific confirmation. Having solved this issue, I resort to an episode of contemporary astrocosmology that I interpret as an eloquent example of the effectiveness of abductive methodology in contemporary theoretical physics.

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Published

2018-04-01

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2018): Miscellaneous

Section

Articles

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How to Cite

Abduction, Bayesianism and Best Explanations in Physics. (2018). Culturas Científicas, 1(1), 63-75. https://revistas.usach.cl/ojs/index.php/culturas/article/view/3541