Abstract

Based on a conference held at Wesleyan University, this book offers an illuminating compendium of opinion on several cardinal issues related to induction; specifically, the nature of explanation, probability, prediction, behavior theory, and the role of values in scientific inferences. Papers are presented by Hughes Leblanc, Wesley Salmon, W. Ross Ashby, Daniel Berlyne, Herbert Robbins, Adolf Grünbaum, N. R. Hanson, Sidney Morgenbesser, and Richard Braithwaite. Contributors to the subsequent discussions include Max Black, Michael Scriven, and Wilfrid Sellars. Both the papers read and most of the ensuing discussions are reproduced in full, and the reader can witness the gestation of opinion and the sharpening of issues as vividly as though he were present himself.—T. S. V.