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Concepts of Evidence

“Concepts of Evidence. " This chapter contains an article by that title from Mind (1978), 22-45, a selection from The Book of Evidence (Oxford University Press, 2001), 160-166 (both reprinted by permission), and an addendum to the Mind article for the present volume.

The article in Mind, which was the first of my works developing a theory of evidence, gives counterexamples to standard probability and nonprobability definitions of evidence, introduces various concepts of evidence, and defines the most basic one, “potential evidence," in terms of probability and a concept of “correct explanation," and the others in terms of it. The selection from my book shows how to define the concept of “correct explana­tion" required. The addendum briefly summarizes various changes and additions in the later book. The original paper was selected for reprinting in The Philosopher's Annual for 1978.

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Source: Achinstein P.. Evidence, Explanation, and Realism: Essays in Philosophy of Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press,2010. — 344 p.. 2010

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