Studies in Inductive Logic and Probability

Studies in Inductive Logic and Probability, Volume II—edited by Richard C. Jeffrey—delivers the long-awaited completion of Rudolf Carnap’s “Basic System of Inductive Logic” and, with it, a definitive bridge between logical probability and modern Bayesian thought. Opening with the posthumous Part II of Carnap’s program—on attribute spaces, confirmation across predicate families, and the celebrated λ–γ systems—the volume traces how exchangeability, similarity, and proximity reshape predictive inference beyond the straight rule. Jeffrey’s editorial apparatus situates Carnap’s late revisions and includes the originally withheld §21, offering a rare window onto the extensions Carnap envisaged but did not live to finish.

Surrounding this keystone are landmark contributions that push the program into contemporary terrain. Hintikka and Niiniluoto secure positive confirmation for universal generalizations; Kuipers maps neighboring approaches; de Finetti’s classic paper on partial exchangeability (in translation) anchors the treatment of analogy across families; Link and Diaconis–Freedman supply modern representation theorems; Fenstad reconnects logical languages with probabilistic semantics; and David Lewis’s “Principal Principle” reweaves objective chance into subjective credence. Capped by Douglas Hoover’s note on nonstandard measures, the collection is both capstone and launchpad—indispensable for philosophers of science, statisticians, and decision theorists who want Carnap’s foundations rendered in the idiom that now governs rational belief and inductive learning.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1980.