Summary
In this paper I want to discuss some basic problems of inductive logic, i.e. of the attempt to solve the problem of induction by means of a calculus of logical probability. I shall try to throw some light upon these problems by contrasting inductive logic, based on logical probability, and working with undefined samples of observations, with mathematical statistics, based on statistical probability, and working with representative random samples.
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Carnap, R.,Logical Foundations of Probability, Chicago 1950; [1a] 2nd ed. 1962.
Carnap, R.,The Continuum of Inductive Methods, Chicago 1952.
Carnap, R., ‘The Aim of Inductive Logic’ inLogic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science (ed. by E. Nagel, P. Suppes, and A. Tarski), Stanford 1962.
Carnap, R., ‘Probability and Induction’, in:The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap (ed. by P. A. Schilpp), La Salle, Ill. 1963.
Feller, W.,An Introduction to Probability Theory and its Applications, New York 1957.
Hintikka, J., ‘Towards a Theory of Inductive Generalisation’, inProceedings of the 1964 Congress for Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science (ed. by Y. Bar-Hillel), Amsterdam 1965.
Hintikka, J., ‘On a Combined System of Inductive Logic’,Acta Philosophica Fennica 18 (1965), 21–30.
Hintikka, J., ‘A Two-Dimensional Continuum of Inductive Methods', inAspects of Inductive Logic (ed. by J. Hintikka and P. Suppes), Amsterdam 1966.
Hintikka, J. and J. Pietarinen, ‘Semantic Information and Inductive Logic’, inAspects of Inductive Logic (ed. by J. Hintikka and P. Suppes), Amsterdam 1966.
Kendall, M. G. and A. Stuart,The Advanced Theory of Statistics, London 1961.
Popper, K. R.,The Logie of Scientific Discovery, London 1959.
Vetter, H.,Wahrscheinlichkeit und logischer Spielraum, Tübingen 1967.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vetter, H. Logical probability, mathematical statistics, and the problem of induction. Synthese 20, 56–71 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00567236
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00567236