Inductive Logic as a Structural Reliabilist Theory of Justification

Abstract

For Carnap there is no other way to contrive a theory of the concept of inferential justification other than to construct the systems of deductive and inductive logic is. It is not, however, the kind of theory that would be propounded in the mainstream epistemology. In order then to motivate the discussion of Carnap’s inductive logic as constituting a theory of justification I need first to introduce the epistemological framework appropriate for this discussion. I convey the difference between the kind of the theory of epistemic justification brought out by the Carnap-Hintikka style systems of inductive logic and the kind of the theory of epistemic justification espoused in the mainstream epistemology in terms of minimalist and mentalistic kinds of the theory of epistemic justification.