Further results on inquiry and truth possession

Don Fallis; Gerrard Liddell

doi:10.1016/S0167-7152(02)00308-5

Further results on inquiry and truth possession

Don Fallis, Gerrard Liddell

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Goldman and Shaked (Statist. Probab. Lett. 12 (1991) 415) show that, for all reciprocally convex measures of truth possession, experiments are always "objectively" expected to increase a scientist's degree of truth possession. We show that this result is optimal. Further, we argue that all scientifically acceptable measures of truth possession are proper scoring rules. However, no bounded proper scoring rules are reciprocally convex. Thus, we establish that, for many scientifically acceptable measures of truth possession, experiments are only "subjectively" expected to increase a scientist's degree of truth possession.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	169-182
Number of pages	14
Journal	Statistics and Probability Letters
Volume	60
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-7152(02)00308-5
State	Published - Nov 15 2002
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Epistemic utility
Philosophy of science
Proper scoring rules
Scientific experiment
Truth acquisition
Truth possession

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Statistics and Probability
Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty

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10.1016/S0167-7152(02)00308-5

Cite this

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AB - Goldman and Shaked (Statist. Probab. Lett. 12 (1991) 415) show that, for all reciprocally convex measures of truth possession, experiments are always "objectively" expected to increase a scientist's degree of truth possession. We show that this result is optimal. Further, we argue that all scientifically acceptable measures of truth possession are proper scoring rules. However, no bounded proper scoring rules are reciprocally convex. Thus, we establish that, for many scientifically acceptable measures of truth possession, experiments are only "subjectively" expected to increase a scientist's degree of truth possession.

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KW - Philosophy of science

KW - Proper scoring rules

KW - Scientific experiment

KW - Truth acquisition

KW - Truth possession

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Further results on inquiry and truth possession

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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