IBE AND EBI: ON EXPLANATION BEFORE INFERENCE

In English Inference to the best explanation (IBE) is theoretically interesting in that it promises to throw new light on what an explanation is. IBE challenges the standard view of the relation between inference and explanation. But sometimes it seems that previous explanation is more independent of inference than IBE suggests. Sometimes we have explanation before inference (EBI) which is not IBE. This chapter examines the possibility that the latter is the rule rather than the exception.