Coherence as a heuristic
Author
Summary, in English
The impossibility results of Bovens and Hartmann (2003) and Olsson (2005) call into question the strength of the connection between coherence and truth. As part of the inquiry into this alleged link, I define a notion of degree of truth-conduciveness, relevant for measuring the usefulness of coherence measures as rules-of-thumb for assigning probabilities in situations of partial knowledge. I use the concept to compare the viability of some of the measures of coherence that have been suggested so far under different circumstances. It turns out that all of these, including the prior, are just about equally good in cases of very little knowledge. Nevertheless, there are differences in when they are applicable, and they also depart more from each other when more knowledge is added.
Department/s
Publishing year
2008
Language
English
Pages
1-26
Publication/Series
Mind
Volume
117
Issue
465
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Topic
- Philosophy
Keywords
- Coherence
- probabilistic measures
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0026-4423