Central and East European
Society for Phenomenology

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235847

Wright, Okasha and Chandler on transmission failure

Luca Moretti

pp. 217-234

Abstract

Crispin Wright has given an explanation of how a first time warrant can fall short of transmitting across a known entailment. Formal epistemologists have struggled to turn Wright’s informal explanation into cogent Bayesian reasoning. In this paper, I analyse two Bayesian models of Wright’s account respectively proposed by Samir Okasha and Jake Chandler. I argue that both formalizations are unsatisfactory for different reasons, and I lay down a third Bayesian model that appears to me to capture the valid kernel of Wright’s explanation. After this, I consider a recent development in Wright’s account of transmission failure. Wright suggests that his condition sufficient for transmission failure of first time warrant also suffices for transmission failure of supplementary warrant. I propose an interpretation of Wright’s suggestion that shields it from objections. I then lay down a fourth Bayesian framework that provides a simplified model of the unified explanation of transmission failure envisaged by Wright.

Publication details

Published in:

(2012) Synthese 184 (3).

Pages: 217-234

DOI: 10.1007/s11229-010-9771-x

Full citation:

Moretti Luca (2012) „Wright, Okasha and Chandler on transmission failure“. Synthese 184 (3), 217–234.