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Inference to the Best Explanation: The Case of Potential Energy

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Date

2020

Authors

Riggs, Peter J.

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Rijeka

Abstract

It has been claimed that kinetic energy is an objective physical quantity whilst at the same time maintaining that potential energy is not. However, by making use of the method of 'inference to the best explanation', it may be readily concluded that potential energy is indeed an objective physical quantity. This is done for an example drawn from the foundations of modern chemistry. In order to do so, the criteria of what counts as 'most probable' and 'most reasonable' are defined and then employed for choosing the best explanation.

Description

Keywords

Potential energy, inference to the best explanation, objectivity of energy, instrumental hypothesis

Citation

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/1885/252015

Collections

ANU Research Publications

Source

European Journal of Analytical Philosophy

Type

Journal article

Book Title

Entity type

Access Statement

Open Access

License Rights

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

DOI

10.31820/ejap.16.1.5

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