On the Ramsey Test Analysis of 'Because'

Andreas, Holger and Guenther, Mario (2019): On the Ramsey Test Analysis of 'Because'. In: Erkenntnis, Vol. 84, No. 6: pp. 1229-1262

Abstract

The well-known formal semantics of conditionals due to Stalnaker (in: Rescher (ed) Studies in logical theory, Blackwell, Oxford, 1968), Lewis (Counterfactuals, Blackwell, Oxford, 1973a), and Gardenfors (in: Niiniluoto, Tuomela (eds) The logic and 1140 epistemology of scientific change, North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1978, Knowledge in flux, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1988) all fail to distinguish between trivially and nontrivially true indicative conditionals. This problem has been addressed by Rott (Erkenntnis 25(3):345-370, 1986) in terms of a strengthened Ramsey Test. In this paper, we refine Rott's strengthened Ramsey Test and the corresponding analysis of explanatory relations. We show that our final analysis captures the presumed asymmetry between explanans and explanandum much better than Rott's original analysis.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 100 Philosophy
• ISSN: 0165-0106
• Language: English