Weighing Interpretations in Science, Biblical Studies, and Life
eBook - PDF

Weighing Interpretations in Science, Biblical Studies, and Life

The Quest for the Best Explanation

  1. 259 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Weighing Interpretations in Science, Biblical Studies, and Life

The Quest for the Best Explanation

About this book

Conflicting narratives beat upon us everywhere, in politics, religion, and even science. One person's conspiracy theory seems to be another's self-evident truth. But how are we to decide—what makes one interpretation of the world better than another? Weighing Interpretations in Science, Biblical Studies, and Life: The Quest for the Best Explanation argues that theories and interpretations are trying to explain the world, and hence the better theory is the one that better explains the data of the world. But this raises questions. What is an explanation? How are we to rank them? What kind of inference allows us to find and reason about these explanations? This book provides a full description of this Inference to Best Explanation (IBE) and shows how IBE is at work in science, Biblical studies, and even everyday life. Matthew B. Joss offers a new method of diagramming and weighing explanatory arguments for competing interpretations. In particular, the book focuses on Biblical studies, showing how this method can help in assessing and dialoging about interpretations, walking through case studies in detail. Finally, the book concludes by gesturing towards some theological implications of IBE. Namely, IBE lends itself to a bottom-up way of theologizing that is consistent with core Christian doctrines.

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Information

Publisher
Lexington Books
Year
2023
Edition
1
eBook ISBN
9781978785083
Topic
Theology & Religion
Subtopic
Biblical Studies

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Introduction
  7. Chapter 1: Confirmation
  8. Chapter 2: Explanation
  9. Chapter 3: Inference
  10. Chapter 4: Best
  11. Chapter 5: From Lab to Library
  12. Chapter 6: IBE and Biblical Studies
  13. Chapter 7: Processing Paradigms
  14. Conclusion
  15. Appendix
  16. Bibliography
  17. Index
  18. About the Author

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Yes, you can access Weighing Interpretations in Science, Biblical Studies, and Life by Matthew B. Joss in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Theology & Religion & Biblical Studies. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.