ELTE TTK Tudomanytortenet es Tudomanyfilozofia Tanszek Budapest, Pazmany P. setany 1/A TUDOMANYFILOZOFIA SZEMINARIUM (http://hps.elte.hu/seminar) ________________________________________________ Januar 17 12:30 6. em. 6.54 A m b r u s - L a k a t o s L o r a n d CEU, Departments of Political Science and Economics VAN FRAASSEN ON EMPIRICISM VERSUS PRAGMATISM IN EPISTEMOLOGY In his paper "Belief and the Will", Bastian van Fraassen presents a framework for the understanding of Empiricist epistemology, and this is the model of Bayesian information processing. Analyzing this framework, he continues, makes us realize that one also has to posit that the Empiricist owes a certain sort of commitment to his own epistemic stances. And this in turn raises the issue of how the Empiricist could make practical decisions concerning what his correct beliefs should be. I argue, however, that the model of Bayesian information processing cannot in general serve the purpose of being a model for Empiricist epistemology. My argument employs a close inspection of the implicit epistemological presuppositions behind the Bayesian model. It also involves a discussion of the implications of the so-called Harsanyi doctrine for the formulation of the Bayesian decision problem. Ha mindenki beszel magyarul, akkor az eloadas magyarul lesz! A szeminarium szervezoje: E. Szabo Laszlo -- Laszlo E. Szabo Department of Theoretical Physics Department of History and Philosophy of Science Eotvos University, Budapest H-1518 Budapest, Pf. 32. Phone: (36-1)2090-555/6671 Fax: (36-1)372-2509 Home: (36-1)200-7318 http://hps.elte.hu/~leszabo