Belief Revision (belief + revision)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Belief revision and information fusion on optimum entropy

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 9 2004
Gabriele Kern-Isberner
This article presents new methods for probabilistic belief revision and information fusion. By making use of the information theoretical principles of optimum entropy (ME principles), we define a generalized revision operator that aims at simulating the human learning of lessons, and we introduce a fusion operator that handles probabilistic information faithfully. This ME-fusion operator satisfies basic demands, such as commutativity and the Pareto principle. A detailed analysis shows it to merge the corresponding epistemic states. Furthermore, it induces a numerical fusion operator that computes the information theoretical mean of probabilities. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 19: 837,857, 2004. [source]


Conceptual Equivocation and Epistemic Relevance

DIALECTICA, Issue 2 2009
Mikkel Gerken
Much debate has surrounded "switching" scenarios in which a subject's reasoning is said to exhibit the fallacy of equivocation (Burge 1988; Boghossian 1992, 1994). Peter Ludlow has argued that such scenarios are "epistemically prevalent" and, therefore, epistemically relevant alternatives (Ludlow 1995a). Since a distinctive feature of the cases in question is that the subject blamelessly engages in conceptual equivocation, we may label them ,equivocational switching cases'. Ludlow's influential argument occurs in a discussion about compatibilism with regards to anti-individualism (or content externalism) and self-knowledge. However, the issue has wide-reaching consequences for many areas of epistemology. Arguably, the claim that equivocational switching cases are epistemically relevant may bear on the epistemology of inference, testimony, memory, group rationality and belief revision. Ludlow's argument proceeds from a now well-known "down to Earth" switching-case of a subject, Biff, who travels between the US and the UK. I argue that Ludlow's case-based argument fails to support the general claim that conceptual equivocational switching cases are prevalent and epistemically relevant. Thus, the discussion addresses the basis of some poorly understood issues regarding the epistemological consequences of anti-individualism. Simultaneously, the discussion is broadened from the narrow focus on self-knowledge. Finally, the critical discussion serves as the basis for some general reflections on epistemic relevance and the epistemic risks associated with conceptual equivocation. Specifically, I suggest that philosophy is an area where the risk of conceptual equivocation is extraordinarily high. [source]


Belief revision and information fusion on optimum entropy

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 9 2004
Gabriele Kern-Isberner
This article presents new methods for probabilistic belief revision and information fusion. By making use of the information theoretical principles of optimum entropy (ME principles), we define a generalized revision operator that aims at simulating the human learning of lessons, and we introduce a fusion operator that handles probabilistic information faithfully. This ME-fusion operator satisfies basic demands, such as commutativity and the Pareto principle. A detailed analysis shows it to merge the corresponding epistemic states. Furthermore, it induces a numerical fusion operator that computes the information theoretical mean of probabilities. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 19: 837,857, 2004. [source]


Young children learning about living things: A case study of conceptual change from ontological and social perspectives

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 5 2004
Grady VenvilleArticle first published online: 16 APR 200
Although research from a developmental/psychological perspective indicates that many children do not have a scientific understanding of living things, even by the age of 10 years, little research has been conducted about how students learn this science topic in the classroom. This exploratory research used a case-study design and qualitative data-collection methods to investigate the process of conceptual change from ontological and social perspectives when Year 1 (5- and 6-year-old) students were learning about living things. Most students were found to think about living things with either stable, nonscientific or stable, scientific framework theories. Transitional phases of understanding also were identified. Patterns of conceptual change observed over the 5-week period of instruction included theory change and belief revision as well as reversals in beliefs. The predominant pattern of learning, however, was the assimilation of facts and information into the students' preferred framework theory. The social milieu of the classroom context exposed students' scientific and nonscientific beliefs that influenced other individuals in a piecemeal fashion. Children with nonscientific theories of living things were identified as being least able to benefit from socially constructed, scientific knowledge; hence, recommendations are made for teaching that focuses on conceptual change strategies rather than knowledge enrichment. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 449,480, 2004 [source]


A NEW REVISABILITY PARADOX

PACIFIC PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2007
DANIEL Y. ELSTEIN
Katz argued that a Quinean epistemology incorporating a principle of the universal revisability of beliefs would have to hold that that and other principles of the system were both revisable and unrevisable. Colyvan rejects Katz's argument for failing to take into account the logic of belief revision. But granting the terms of debate laid down by Colyvan, the universal revisability principle still commits Quineans to holding that one belief is both revisable and unrevisable: the belief that some beliefs are revisable. [source]