FACT FICTION FORECAST Nelson Goodman Bienes | 6096132 | :Fourth Edition FACT, FICTION, AND FORECAST NELSON GOODMAN New foreword by Hilary Putnam “Quite possibly the best book by a philosopher in the last wenty years. It changed, probably permanently, the way we think about the problem of induction, and hence about a constella- tion of related problems like learning and the nature of rational decision. This is the work of contemporary philosophy thar | would most like to have written. ”“—J. A. Fodor Here, in a new edition, is Nelson Goodman's provocative philo- sophical classic—o book thar, according to Science, “raised a storm of controversy” when it was first published in 1954, and ‘one that remains on the front lines of philosophical debate. How is it thar we feel confident in generalizing from experience in some ways but not in others? How are generalizations thor ‘are warranted to be distinguished from those that are not? Goodman shows that these questions resist formal solution and his demonstration has been taken by nativists like Chomsky ‘and Fodor os proof that neither scientific induction nor ordinary learning can proceed without an a priori, or innate, ordering of hypotheses. In his new foreword fo this edition, Hilary Putnam forcefully rejects these nativist clatms. The controversy surround- ing these unsolved problems is as relevant to the psychology of cognitive development as it is to the philosophy of science, No serious student of either discipline can afford to misunderstand Goodman's classic argument. In Putnam's words, it is “one of the few books that ever” — student of philosophy in our time has to have read.” te Nelson Goodman was Professor of il Philosophy, Emeritus, Harvard University . WN YHO04-01: Mm (Mea AIM BN O-b?4-29071-2PREDICAMENT 1946 The chapter to follow was originally delivered as a lecture at the New York Philosophical Circle on May 11, 1946; and published with some revisions in the Journal of Philosophy in February 1947, volume xliv, pages 113-28. Only minor changes have been made in the present text. HINKLE 6096132