Inductive Probabilities of Weak Generalizations

Abstract

In this chapter, we are interested in the question of how the probabilities of weak generalizations of the observational language change when a new predicate is introduced into our language, and, at the same time, our knowledge of the connections of this new predicate to the old vocabulary is applied. The same question for strong generalizations is taken up in the next section. General formulae are calculated for the probabilities of generalizations in Hintikka’s system with λ( w) = w, and some observations and examples of their behaviour are given. For simplicity, we generally consider only the case of one new monadic predicate.