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Topoi (2011) 30:4751DOI 10.1007/s11245-010-9088-x
God 2 Moore = Ramsey (A Reply to Chalmers and Hjek)
Hannes Leitgeb
Published online: 31 December 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Abstract Famously, Frank P. Ramsey suggested a test for the acceptability of conditionals. Recently, David Chalmers and Alan Hjek (2007) have criticized a qualitative variant of the Ramsey test for indicative conditionals. In this paper we argue for the following three claims:(i) Chalmers and Hjek are right that the variant of the Ramsey test that they attack is not the correct way of spelling out an acceptability test for indicative conditionals. But there is a suppositional variant of the Ramsey test which is still stated in purely qualitative terms, which avoids the problems, and which looks correct. (ii) While the variant of the Ramsey test that Chalmers and Hjek criticize is not correct, it is still a good approximation of a correct formulation of the Ramsey test which may be usefully employed in various contexts. (iii) The variant of the Ramsey test that Chalmers and Hjek suggest as a substitute for the decient version of the Ramsey test is itself subject to worries similar to those raised by Chalmers and Hjek, if it is given a non-suppositional interpretation.
Keywords Ramsey test Conditionals Moore
Introspection
Famously, Frank P. Ramsey suggested a test for the acceptability of conditionals in a footnote of his Ramsey (1931). Recently, David Chalmers and Alan Hjek (2007) have criticized a variant of this Ramsey test for indicative
conditionals. Their criticism is not meant to be a piece of Ramsey exegesis, but what they are ultimately interested in is the correct formulation of a test condition for the acceptability of indicative conditionals.1 Let us call a variant of the Ramsey test for conditionals any test for the acceptability of conditionals that at least vaguely resembles Ramseys own formulation in Ramsey (1931). And let us call a correct variant of the Ramsey test any variant of the Ramsey test that determines the acceptability of conditionals in a way that is both normatively compelling and reasonably close to our everyday assessments of acceptability. Chalmers and Hjek argue that the following variant of the Ramsey test is not correct:
(R) if p then q is acceptable to a...