1 Specification : The Pattern That Signifies Intelligence

Specification denotes the type of pattern that highly improbable events must exhibit before one is entitled to attribute them to intelligence. This paper analyzes the concept of specification and shows how it applies to design detection (i.e., the detection of intelligence on the basis of circumstantial evidence). Always in the background throughout this discussion is the fundamental question of Intelligent Design (ID): Can objects, even if nothing is known about how they arose, exhibit features that reliably signal the action of an intelligent cause? This paper reviews, clarifies, and extends previous work on specification in my books The Design Inference and No Free Lunch. 1 Specification as a Form of Warrant In the 1990s, Alvin Plantinga focused much of his work on the concept of warrant. During that time, he published three substantial volumes on that topic.1 For Plantinga, warrant is what turns true belief into knowledge. To see what is at stake with warrant, consider the following remark by Bertrand Russell on the nature of error: Error is not only the absolute error of believing what is false, but also the quantitative error of believing more or less strongly than is warranted by the degree of credibility properly attaching to the proposition believed in relation to the believer’s knowledge. A man who is quite convinced that a certain horse will win the Derby is in error even if the horse does win.2 It is not enough merely to believe that something is true; there also has to be something backing up that belief. Accordingly, belief and persuasion are intimately related concepts: we believe that