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Wright, Okasha and Chandler on transmission failure

  • Luca Moretti

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Crispin Wright has given an explanation of how a first time warrant can fall short of transmitting across a known entailment. Formal epistemologists have struggled to turn Wright's informal explanation into cogent Bayesian reasoning. In this paper, I analyse two Bayesian models of Wright's account respectively proposed by Samir Okasha and Jake Chandler. I argue that both formalizations are unsatisfactory for different reasons, and I lay down a third Bayesian model that appears to me to capture the valid kernel of Wright's explanation. After this, I consider a recent development in Wright's account of transmission failure. Wright suggests that his condition sufficient for transmission failure of first time warrant also suffices for transmission failure of supplementary warrant. I propose an interpretation of Wright's suggestion that shields it from objections. I then lay down a fourth Bayesian framework that provides a simplified model of the unified explanation of transmission failure envisaged by Wright.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)217-234
Number of pages18
JournalSynthese
Volume184
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Bayesianism
  • Chandler
  • Okasha
  • Transmission failure
  • Transmission of warrant
  • Warrant
  • Wright

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