Is the striking principle privileged?

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter examines the third part of the naïve picture. Building on the idea that there is a privileged set of epistemic principles (as developed in Chapter 2), it argues that the striking principle is not a member of this set. The main premise of this argument is that the striking principle is dispensable because, for paradigmatic facts that call for explanation, there are good explanations of what we should infer about each fact that do not appeal to the striking principle. Instead, these explanations appeal to other, better-established principles, such as Bayesian principles and enumerative induction. Towards the end of the chapter a final suggestion is explored and rejected. The suggestion is that the striking principle is dispensable as a fundamental principle, but still useful as a shortcut.