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Reasoning About Uncertain Conditionals

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Abstract

There is a long tradition in formal epistemology and in the psychology of reasoning to investigate indicative conditionals. In psychology, the propositional calculus was taken for granted to be the normative standard of reference. Experimental tasks, evaluation of the participants’ responses and psychological model building, were inspired by the semantics of the material conditional. Recent empirical work on indicative conditionals focuses on uncertainty. Consequently, the normative standard of reference has changed. I argue why neither logic nor standard probability theory provide appropriate rationality norms for uncertain conditionals. I advocate coherence based probability logic as an appropriate framework for investigating uncertain conditionals. Detailed proofs of the probabilistic non-informativeness of a paradox of the material conditional illustrate the approach from a formal point of view. I survey selected data on human reasoning about uncertain conditionals which additionally support the plausibility of the approach from an empirical point of view.

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  1. Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, LMU Munich, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539, Munich, Germany

    Niki Pfeifer

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Pfeifer, N. Reasoning About Uncertain Conditionals. Stud Logica 102, 849–866 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11225-013-9505-4

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