title: Probabilistic Networks and Explanatory Coherence.
creator: Thagard, Paul.
subject: Cognitive Psychology
subject: Artificial Intelligence
subject: Philosophy of Science
description: When surprising events occur, people naturally try to generate explanations of them. Such explanations usually involve hypothesizing causes that have the events as effects. Reasoning from effects to prior causes is found in many domains, including: Social reasoning: when friends are acting strange, we conjecture about what might be bothering them. Legal reasoning: when a crime has been committed, jurors must decide whether the prosecution's case gives a convincing explanation of the evidence. Medical diagnosis: given a set of symptoms, a physician tries to decide what disease or diseases produced them. Fault diagnosis in manufacturing: when a piece of equipment breaks down, a trouble shooter must try to determine the cause of the breakdown. Scientific theory evaluation: scientists seek an acceptable theory to explain experimental evidence. What is the nature of such reasoning?
publisher: AAAI Press.  Menlo Park
contributor: O'Rourke, P
contributor: Josephson, J.
date: 1997
type: Book Chapter
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: text/html
identifier: http://cogprints.org/668/1/_7FTraditions.html
identifier:   Thagard, Paul.  (1997) Probabilistic Networks and Explanatory Coherence.  [Book Chapter]     
relation: http://cogprints.org/668/