Probabilistic Substitutivity at a Reduced Price

One of the many intriguing features of the axiomatic systems of probability investigated in Popper (1959), appendices _iv, _v, is the different status of the two arguments of the probability functor with regard to the laws of replacement and commutation. The laws for the first argument, (rep1) and...

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Main Author: David Miller
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina 2011-05-01
Series:Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology
Online Access:https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/23376
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author David Miller
author_facet David Miller
author_sort David Miller
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description One of the many intriguing features of the axiomatic systems of probability investigated in Popper (1959), appendices _iv, _v, is the different status of the two arguments of the probability functor with regard to the laws of replacement and commutation. The laws for the first argument, (rep1) and (comm1), follow from much simpler axioms, whilst (rep2) and (comm2) are independent of them, and have to be incorporated only when most of the important deductions have been accomplished. It is plain that, in the presence of (comm1), the principle (sub), which says that terms that are intersubstitutable in the first argument are intersubstitutable also in the second argument, implies (comm2), and in Popper’s systems the converse implication obtains. It is naturally asked what is needed in an axiomatic theory of probability in order to enforce this equivalence. Leblanc (1981) offered a rather weak set of axioms, containing (comm1) and (comm2), that suffice for the derivation of (sub). In this paper Leblanc’s result is improved in a number of different ways. Three weaker systems, one of which is incomparable with the other two, are shown to admit the same implication.  
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spelling doaj-art-b58a5e7d98b440e7aa20abf4be6805cb2025-08-20T02:48:49ZengUniversidade Federal de Santa CatarinaPrincipia: An International Journal of Epistemology1808-17112011-05-0115210.5007/1808-1711.2011v15n2p27117344Probabilistic Substitutivity at a Reduced PriceDavid Miller0Department of Philosophy University of Warwick COVENTRY CV4 7AL UK One of the many intriguing features of the axiomatic systems of probability investigated in Popper (1959), appendices _iv, _v, is the different status of the two arguments of the probability functor with regard to the laws of replacement and commutation. The laws for the first argument, (rep1) and (comm1), follow from much simpler axioms, whilst (rep2) and (comm2) are independent of them, and have to be incorporated only when most of the important deductions have been accomplished. It is plain that, in the presence of (comm1), the principle (sub), which says that terms that are intersubstitutable in the first argument are intersubstitutable also in the second argument, implies (comm2), and in Popper’s systems the converse implication obtains. It is naturally asked what is needed in an axiomatic theory of probability in order to enforce this equivalence. Leblanc (1981) offered a rather weak set of axioms, containing (comm1) and (comm2), that suffice for the derivation of (sub). In this paper Leblanc’s result is improved in a number of different ways. Three weaker systems, one of which is incomparable with the other two, are shown to admit the same implication.   https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/23376
spellingShingle David Miller
Probabilistic Substitutivity at a Reduced Price
Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology
title Probabilistic Substitutivity at a Reduced Price
title_full Probabilistic Substitutivity at a Reduced Price
title_fullStr Probabilistic Substitutivity at a Reduced Price
title_full_unstemmed Probabilistic Substitutivity at a Reduced Price
title_short Probabilistic Substitutivity at a Reduced Price
title_sort probabilistic substitutivity at a reduced price
url https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/23376
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