Event Detail

Fri Sep 23, 2022
60 Evans Hall
4:10–5 PM
Logic Colloquium
Branden Fitelson (Northeastern University)
Probabilities of Conditionals and Conditional Probabilities – Revisited

Lewis’s (1976) triviality argument against The Equation (a.k.a, Adams’s Thesis) rests on an implausibly strong presupposition about the nature of (epistemic) rational requirements. Interestingly, Lewis (1980) later rejected this presupposition. In his discussion of the Principal Principle, Lewis assumes something weaker, and more reasonable, about the nature of rational requirements. In this paper, I explain how to apply the insights of Lewis (1980) to repair Lewis’s earlier (1976) discussion. This leads to a more reasonable rendition of The Equation — one which is (a) immune from triviality, and (b) a better candidate for a (bona fide) rational requirement.