Probability and Conditionals - Belief Revision and Rational Decision

This is a state-of-the-art collection of essays on the relation between probabilities, especially conditional probabilities, and conditionals. It provides new negative results that sharply limit the ways conditionals can be related to conditional probabilities. There are also positive ideas and results that will open up new areas of research. The collection is intended to honor Ernest W. Adams, whose seminal work is largely responsible for creating this area of inquiry. In addition to describing, evaluating, and applying Adams's work, these contributions extend his ideas in directions he may or may not have anticipated, but that he certainly inspired. This volume should be of interest to a wide range of philosophers of science, as well as to computer scientists and linguists.

List of contents

List of contributors; Introduction; 1. Some questions about Adams' conditionals Patrick Suppes; 2. Adams conditionals Brian Skyrms; 3. Letter to Brian Skyrms Robert Stalnaker; 4. Conditionals as random variables Robert Stalnaker and Richard Jeffrey; 5. From Adams' conditionals to default expressions, causal conditionals, and counterfactuals Judea Pearl; 6. The hypothesis of the conditional construal of conditional probability Alan Hájek and Ned Hall; 7. Triviality on the cheap? Alan Hájek; 8. Back in the CCCP Ned Hall; 9. The Howson-Urbach proofs of Bayesian principles Charles S. Chihara; 10. Learning the impossible Vann McGee; 11. A brief survey of Adams' contributions to philosophy Patrick Suppes; Publications of Ernest W. Adams.

Summary

This collection of essays is on the relation between probabilities, especially conditional probabilities, and conditionals. It provides negative results which sharply limit the ways conditionals can be related to conditional probabilities.

Product details

• Assisted by: Ken Binmore (Editor), Ellery Eells (Editor), Ellery T. Eells (Editor), Eells Ellery (Editor), Brian Skyrms (Editor), Skyrms Brian (Editor)
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 25.11.1994
• EAN: 9780521453592
• ISBN: 978-0-521-45359-2
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 16 mm
• Weight: 490 g
• Illustrations: 8 b/w illus., Zeichnungen, nicht spezifiziert
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Probabili; Cambridge Studies in Probability, Induction and Decision Theory
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; PHILOSOPHY / Epistemology, PHILOSOPHY / Logic, Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge, Philosophy: logic, Philosophy: epistemology and theory of knowledge