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Reliability conducive measures of coherence

Olsson, Erik J LU and Schubert, Stefan LU (2007) In Synthese 157(3). p.297-308
Abstract
A measure of coherence is said to be truth conducive if and only if a higher degree of coherence (as measured) results in a higher likelihood of truth. Recent impossibility results strongly indicate that there are no (non-trivial) probabilistic coherence measures that are truth conducive. Indeed, this holds even if truth conduciveness is understood in a weak ceteris paribus sense (Bovens & Hartmann, 2003, Bayesian epistemology. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press; Olsson, 2005, Against coherence: Truth probability and justification. Oxford: Oxford University Press). This raises the problem of how coherence could nonetheless be an epistemically important property. Our proposal is that coherence may be linked in a certain way to... (More)
A measure of coherence is said to be truth conducive if and only if a higher degree of coherence (as measured) results in a higher likelihood of truth. Recent impossibility results strongly indicate that there are no (non-trivial) probabilistic coherence measures that are truth conducive. Indeed, this holds even if truth conduciveness is understood in a weak ceteris paribus sense (Bovens & Hartmann, 2003, Bayesian epistemology. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press; Olsson, 2005, Against coherence: Truth probability and justification. Oxford: Oxford University Press). This raises the problem of how coherence could nonetheless be an epistemically important property. Our proposal is that coherence may be linked in a certain way to reliability. We define a measure of coherence to be reliability conducive if and only if a higher degree of coherence (as measured) results in a higher probability that the information sources are reliable. Restricting ourselves to the most basic case, we investigate which coherence measures in the literature are reliability conducive. It turns out that, while a number of measures fail to be reliability conducive, except possibly in a trivial and uninteresting sense, Shogenji's measure and several measures generated by Douven and Meijs's recipe are notable exceptions to this rule. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Synthese
volume
157
issue
3
pages
297 - 308
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • wos:000248426600003
  • scopus:34547498832
ISSN
0039-7857
DOI
10.1007/s11229-006-9056-6
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
0ae86904-c41a-4660-a214-b7a4a738a0b8 (old id 686983)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 15:20:42
date last changed
2022-03-22 03:58:19
@article{0ae86904-c41a-4660-a214-b7a4a738a0b8,
  abstract     = {{A measure of coherence is said to be truth conducive if and only if a higher degree of coherence (as measured) results in a higher likelihood of truth. Recent impossibility results strongly indicate that there are no (non-trivial) probabilistic coherence measures that are truth conducive. Indeed, this holds even if truth conduciveness is understood in a weak ceteris paribus sense (Bovens & Hartmann, 2003, Bayesian epistemology. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press; Olsson, 2005, Against coherence: Truth probability and justification. Oxford: Oxford University Press). This raises the problem of how coherence could nonetheless be an epistemically important property. Our proposal is that coherence may be linked in a certain way to reliability. We define a measure of coherence to be reliability conducive if and only if a higher degree of coherence (as measured) results in a higher probability that the information sources are reliable. Restricting ourselves to the most basic case, we investigate which coherence measures in the literature are reliability conducive. It turns out that, while a number of measures fail to be reliability conducive, except possibly in a trivial and uninteresting sense, Shogenji's measure and several measures generated by Douven and Meijs's recipe are notable exceptions to this rule.}},
  author       = {{Olsson, Erik J and Schubert, Stefan}},
  issn         = {{0039-7857}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{297--308}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Synthese}},
  title        = {{Reliability conducive measures of coherence}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-006-9056-6}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s11229-006-9056-6}},
  volume       = {{157}},
  year         = {{2007}},
}