Probabilist - Deductive Inference in Gassendis Logic Essay -- Philoso

Probabilist Deductive Inference in Gassendis logical system*ABSTRACT In his Logic, Pierre Gassendi proposes that our inductive inferences lack the information we would choose to be authoritative of the claims that they suggest. Not even deductivist inference can turn back certainty about empirical claims because the experientially attained premises with which we adduce sponsor for such claims are no greater than probable. While something is surely amiss in calling deductivist inference probabilistic, it seems Gassendi has hit upon a now-familiar, sensible loadnamely, the use of deductive reasoning in empirical contexts, while providing certain formal guarantees, does not insulate empirical arguments from judgment by the rate of belief which we invest in their premises. The more general point, which distinguishes Gassendi among his contemporaries, is that the strength divided by all empirical claims consists in the warrant from experience for those claims we enter in their su pport. In Book IV (On method) of his Institutio Logica, Pierre Gassendi proposes an unusual locale for probable and nondeductive inference in empirical reasoning demonstrative syllogism. Thus, in resolutionthe seeking of a things causes given the induction of its effectshe recognizes the searing role of inferring general claims from the particulars of empirical data, not least from what he calls the evidence of signs. And intriguingly, he construes resolution-based claims as merely probable, though we attain them through classically deductive syllogism, because they represent merely possible claims among a field of alternativesmayhap in the manner of Descartess method. In the preceding book (On the syllogism), Gassendi presents a comparatively tradit... ....Garber, Daniel. Descartes and Experiment in the Discourse and Essays, in Stephen Voss, Essays on the Philosophy and attainment of Rene Descartes. New York and Oxford Oxford University Press, 1993.Gassendi, Pierre. Institutio Logica, 1658.Hacking, Ian. The Emergence of Probability. Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1985.Hatfield, Gary. intuition, Certainty, and Descartes, in PSA 1988 Proceedings of the Biennial shock of the Philosophy of Science Association. Volume Two. 249-262. East Lansing, Michigan Philosophy of Science Association, 1988.Hintikka, Jakko. Aristotelian Induction, in Revue Internationale de Philosophie 34 (1980) 422-40.Milton, J. R. Induction before Hume, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38 (1987) 49-74. Urbach, Peter. Francis Bacons Philosophy of Science. La Salle, Illinois exposed Court, 1987.