creators_name: Franceschi, Paul type: journale datestamp: 2010-10-18 11:04:49 lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:57:45 metadata_visibility: show title: A Third Route to the Doomsday Argument ispublished: pub subjects: phil-logic subjects: phil-epist full_text_status: public keywords: Doomsday argument, two-urn case, emerald case, thought experiment, probability theory abstract: In this paper, I present a solution to the Doomsday argument based on a third type of solution, by contrast to, on the one hand, the Carter-Leslie view and, on the other hand, the Eckhardt et al. analysis. I begin by strengthening both competing models by highlighting some variations of their original models, which renders them less vulnerable to several objections. I then describe a third line of solution, which incorporates insights from both Leslie and Eckhardt's models and fits more adequately with the human situation corresponding to DA. I argue then that this two-sided analogy casts new light on the reference class problem. This leads finally to a novel formulation of the argument that could well be more plausible than the original one. date: 2010-10-02 date_type: published publication: Journal of Philosophical Research volume: 34 refereed: TRUE referencetext: Bostrom, Nick. 1997. “Investigations into the Doomsday argument.” preprint at http://www.anthropic-principle.com/preprints/inv/investigations.html. ———. 2002. Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy New York: Routledge. Chambers, Timothy. 2001. “Do Doomsday's Proponents Think We Were Born Yesterday?” Philosophy 76: 443-450. Delahaye, Jean-Paul. 1996. “Recherche de modèles pour l’argument de l’apocalypse de Carter-Leslie.” manuscrit. Eckhardt, William. 1993. “Probability Theory and the Doomsday Argument.” Mind 102: 483-488. ———. 1997. “A Shooting-Room view of Doomsday.” Journal of Philosophy 94: 244-259. Franceschi, Paul. 1998. “Une solution pour l'argument de l'Apocalypse.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 28: 227-246. ———. 1999. “Comment l'urne de Carter et Leslie se déverse dans celle de Hempel.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 29: 139-156, English translation under the title “The Doomsday Argument and Hempel's Problem.” http://cogprints.org/2172/. ———. 2002. “Une application des n-univers à l'argument de l'Apocalypse et au paradoxe de Goodman.” Corté: University of Corsica, doctoral dissertation. Hájek, Alan. 2002. “Interpretations of Probability.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, E. N. Zalta (ed.), http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2002/entries/probability-interpret. Korb, Kevin. & Oliver, Jonathan. 1998. “A Refutation of the Doomsday Argument.” Mind 107: 403-410. Leslie, John. 1993. “Doom and Probabilities.” Mind 102: 489-491. ———. 1996. The End of the World: the science and ethics of human extinction London: Routledge. Sober, Eliott. 2003. “An Empirical Critique of Two Versions of the Doomsday Argument - Gott’s Line and Leslie’s Wedge.” Synthese 135-3: 415-430. Sowers, George. 2002. “The Demise of the Doomsday Argument.” Mind 111: 37-45. citation: Franceschi, Paul (2010) A Third Route to the Doomsday Argument. [Journal (On-line/Unpaginated)] document_url: http://cogprints.org/7044/1/DA-en.pdf