McGee's Counterexample to the Ramsey Test
(2017) In Theoria: a Swedish Journal of Philosophy 83(2). p.154-168- Abstract
- Vann McGee has proposed a counterexample to the Ramsey Test. In the counterexample, a seemingly trustworthy source has testified that p and that if not-p, then q. If one subsequently learns not-p (and so learns that the source is wrong about p), then one has reason to doubt the trustworthiness of the source (perhaps even the identity of the source) and so, the argument goes, one has reason to doubt the conditional asserted by the source. Since what one learns is that the antecedent of the conditional holds, these doubts are contrary to the Ramsey Test. We argue that the counterexample fails. It rests on a principle of testimonial dependence that is not applicable when a source hedges his or her claims.
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https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/be79cfa0-5cbc-4236-b0a8-dff44c97fd58
- author
- Cantwell, John ; Lindström, Sten and Rabinowicz, Wlodek LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Ramsey Test, conditionals, counterexample
- in
- Theoria: a Swedish Journal of Philosophy
- volume
- 83
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 15 pages
- publisher
- Thales
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85016737046
- wos:000402174600005
- ISSN
- 0040-5825
- DOI
- 10.1111/theo.12115
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- be79cfa0-5cbc-4236-b0a8-dff44c97fd58
- date added to LUP
- 2017-03-24 13:34:15
- date last changed
- 2022-03-09 01:54:40
@article{be79cfa0-5cbc-4236-b0a8-dff44c97fd58, abstract = {{Vann McGee has proposed a counterexample to the Ramsey Test. In the counterexample, a seemingly trustworthy source has testified that p and that if not-p, then q. If one subsequently learns not-p (and so learns that the source is wrong about p), then one has reason to doubt the trustworthiness of the source (perhaps even the identity of the source) and so, the argument goes, one has reason to doubt the conditional asserted by the source. Since what one learns is that the antecedent of the conditional holds, these doubts are contrary to the Ramsey Test. We argue that the counterexample fails. It rests on a principle of testimonial dependence that is not applicable when a source hedges his or her claims.}}, author = {{Cantwell, John and Lindström, Sten and Rabinowicz, Wlodek}}, issn = {{0040-5825}}, keywords = {{Ramsey Test; conditionals; counterexample}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{2}}, pages = {{154--168}}, publisher = {{Thales}}, series = {{Theoria: a Swedish Journal of Philosophy}}, title = {{McGee's Counterexample to the Ramsey Test}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/theo.12115}}, doi = {{10.1111/theo.12115}}, volume = {{83}}, year = {{2017}}, }