Bootstrap confirmation made quantitative

Igor Douven

Wouter Meijs

pp. 97-132

in: Synthese 149 (1), 2006.

Abstract

Glymour’s theory of bootstrap confirmation is a purely qualitative account of confirmation; it allows us to say that the evidence confirms a given theory, but not that it confirms the theory to a certain degree. The present paper extends Glymour’s theory to a quantitative account and investigates the resulting theory in some detail. It also considers the question how bootstrap confirmation relates to justification.