A Material Theory of Induction*

Material Theory of Induction and Scientific Realism

John Norton has advanced a general view of induction—‘Material Theory of Induction’—that renders ampliative reasoning in a deep sense local. This paper is a sympathetic appraisal of this view, applying it to the scientific realism debate. It argues that the scientific realist should turn to such local construal of ampliative reasoning in her attempt to justify beliefs about unobservables. More ...

The Material Theory of Induction , now in preparation

applying transitivity theory to gender analysis of efl textbook: : a comparative study.

efl/esl textbooks have been regarded as essential language teaching materials with which the learners spend about 70 up to 90 percent of their class time. the important role they play and their vast use make them not only influential in learning the language but also in shaping values and attitudes. put it another way, textbooks socialize learners using their contents (i.e. texts, illustrations...

Application of Chaos Theory in Hazardous Material Transportation

Risk factors are generally defined and assigned to road networks, as constant measures in hazmat routing problems. In fact, they may be dynamic variables depending on traffic volume, weather and road condition, and drivers' behavior. In this research work, risk factors are defined as dynamic variables using the concept of chaos theory. The largest Lyapunov exponent is utilized to determine the ...

A relevance theory of induction.

A framework theory, organized around the principle of relevance, is proposed for category-based reasoning. According to the relevance principle, people assume that premises are informative with respect to conclusions. This idea leads to the prediction that people will use causal scenarios and property reinforcement strategies in inductive reasoning. These predictions are contrasted with both ex...