Premium
On the Inadmissibility of Some Historical Information[Note 1. Earlier versions of this paper were presented in the ...]
Author(s) -
NissanRozen Ittay
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
philosophy and phenomenological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1933-1592
pISSN - 0031-8205
DOI - 10.1111/phpr.12377
Subject(s) - falsity , epistemology , perspective (graphical) , attractiveness , philosophy , computer science , artificial intelligence , aesthetics
I argue—from a Humean perspective—for the falsity of what I call the “Admissibility of Historical Information Thesis” ( AHIT ). According to the AHIT , propositions that describe past events are always admissible with respect to propositions that describe future events. I first demonstrate that this thesis has some counter‐intuitive implications and argue that a Humean can explain the intuitive attractiveness of the AHIT by arguing that it results from a wrong understanding of the concept of chance. I then demonstrate how a Humean “best system” analysis of chance predicts the existence of inadmissible historical information and discuss the implications of this conclusion to the debate between Humeans and non‐Humeans.