Abstract
Abstract
A theoretical inference is reflective only if the inferer performs the inference because they believe that the premises are reasons for believing the conclusion in one of the senses discussed in Chapter 3. An essential feature of reflective inferences is that they are accompanied by a linking belief, i.e., the belief that the inference’s premises are reasons of some sort for believing the conclusion. Reflective inferences are connected to reason-giving uses of arguments in the following two ways. If you perform a reflective inference, then you use the corresponding argument in a reason-giving way. If you use an argument in a reason-giving way, then you have performed a reflective inference from its premises to conclusion. Chapter 4 identifies distinguishing features of reflective inferences in order to ground these theses so as to account for why reflective inferences are necessarily accompanied by a linking belief.