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SUMMARY:Mind your Ps and Qs: a contrastive account of testimonial inferenc
 e to the best explanation - James Poskett (Department of History and Philo
 sophy of Science)
DTSTART:20121107T170000Z
DTEND:20121107T180000Z
UID:TALK40305@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Vashka dos Remedios
DESCRIPTION:Testimonial inference to the best explanation (TIBE) is a prom
 ising descriptive account of our testimonial practices. In this paper I ar
 gue that TIBE must be supplemented by contrastivism in order to explain bo
 th the success and the failure of testimony. In doing so\, I incorporate t
 wo domains of the philosophy of science which are often treated as distinc
 t: \ncontrastive explanation (Why P rather than Q?) and contrastive knowle
 dge (S knows P rather than Q). This contrastivist development imposes a re
 quirement to manage contrast classes. In light of this\, I make the novel 
 argument that TIBE is a two-step process. A primary IBE is performed in or
 der to identify the speaker's contrast class. A secondary IBE is then \npe
 rformed to evaluate the truth of the speaker's testimony. These developmen
 ts help emphasise the role of context in the management of testimony.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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