Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-g96k6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-10T10:49:04.811Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Wisdom Updated

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Arthur Falk
Arthur Falk*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy Western Michigan University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Given the personalist's latitudinarian conception of rationality, what is progress toward wisdom? An answer is in C. I. Lewis's concept of the “congruence” of propositions, propositions so related that the antecedent probability of any one of them will be increased if the remainder can be assumed. This effect can be modelled in the probability calculus with due attention to the temporal sequencing of our learning of contingent propositions without ever becoming certain of them, as Jeffrey proposes. A diachronic bootstrapping effect is obtained for Ockham's razor and premises of arguments about a god's existence. As a theory's probability rises with increased evidence, the probability of our earlier evidence rises too.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 62 , Issue 3 , September 1995 , pp. 389 - 403
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

†

This essay incorporates my presentations at the Eighth International Congress of Philosophy, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science, Moscow, 1987, titled “Using Bayes's Theorem Repeatedly to Corroborate Results,” and at the Eastern division of the A. P. A., 1988, titled “Is C. I. Lewis's Epistemology Bayesian Bootstrapping?” I thank my A. P. A. commentator, Davis Baird, for many comments, but especially for forcing me to acknowledge that my real interest is in the goal of rationality, wisdom, rather than rationality merely. I thank Evan Fales for encouragement essential to the resurrection of this essay, and for important criticisms.

‡

Send reprint requests to the author, Department of Philosophy, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5022, or internet: arthur.falk@wmich.edu.

References

Chisholm, R. (1977), Theory of Knowledge, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Cohen, L. J. (1977), The Probable and the Provable. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diaconis, P., and Zabell, S. (1982), “Updating Subjective Probability”, Journal of the American Statistical Association 77: 822–830.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Empiricus, S. (1933), Outlines of Pyrrhonism. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press. Loeb Classical Library, translation by R. G. Bury.Google Scholar
Glymour, C. (1980), “Bootstraps and Probabilities”, The Journal of Philosophy 77: 691–698, with a correction in The Journal of Philosophy 78: 58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeffrey, R. (1983), The Logic of Decision. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Jefferys, W. H, and Berger, J. O. (1992). “Ockham's Razor and Bayesian Analysis”, American Scientist 80: 64–72.Google Scholar
Lewis, C. I. (1946), An Analysis of Knowledge and Valuation. La Salle, IL: Open Court.Google Scholar
Marcel, G. (1965), Being and Having. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Mill, J. S. ([1863] 1957), Utilitarianism. New York: The Liberal Arts Press.Google Scholar
Morris, H. M. (1972), The Remarkable Birth of the Planet Earth. San Diego: Creation-Life Publishers.Google Scholar
O'Neill, J. (1982), “Corroborating Testimonies”, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 33: 60–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peirce, C. S. (1931), Collected Papers. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenkrantz, R. D. (1981), Foundations and Applications of Inductive Probability. Atascadero, CA.: Ridgeview.Google Scholar
Russell, B. ([1912] 1959), The Problems of Philosophy. New York: Galaxy.Google Scholar
Salmon, W. (1973), “Confirmation”, Scientific American 248: 75–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scriven, M. (1966), Primary Philosophy. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Swinburne, R. (1979), The Existence of God. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Whewell, W. (1847), Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. 2nd ed. London: John Parker.Google Scholar
Whewell, W. (1858), Novum Organon Renovatum. London: Longman, Green.Google Scholar