Conflicting narratives beat upon us everywhere, in politics, religion, and even science. One person's conspiracy theory seems to be another's self-evident truth. But how are we to decide-what makes one interpretation of the world better than another? Weighing Interpretations in Science, Biblical Studies, and Life: The Quest for the Best Explanation argues that theories and interpretations are trying to explain the world, and hence the better theory is the one that better explains the data of the world. But this raises questions. What is an explanation? How are we to rank them? What kind of inference allows us to find and reason about these explanations? This book provides a full description of this Inference to Best Explanation (IBE) and shows how IBE is at work in science, Biblical studies, and even everyday life. Matthew Joss offers a new method of diagramming and weighing explanatory arguments for competing interpretations. In particular, the book focuses on Biblical studies, showing how this method can help in assessing and dialoging about interpretations, walking through case studies in detail. Finally, the book concludes by gesturing towards some theological implications of IBE. Namely, IBE lends itself to a bottom-up way of theologizing that is consistent with core Christian doctrines.
Matthew Joss is University and 20-Something's Ministry Coordinator at The River Anglican Church in Blacksburg, VA.
Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One: Confirmation Chapter Two: Explanation Chapter Three: Inference Chapter Four: Best Chapter Five: From Lab to Library Chapter Six: IBE and Biblical Studies Chapter Seven: Processing Paradigms Conclusion Appendix Bibliography About the Author
Dr. Joss picks up on Polkinghorne's emphasis that inference to the best explanation (IBE) is the logic of good reasoning. Dr. Joss presents a persuasive case that IBE is a sound methodology that can be applied in the field of biblical studies to provide new avenues for assessing entrenched debates. The engaged reader will come away with a rich understanding of the merits of confirmation theory, the ability to use this tool in a variety of contexts, and the knowledge of how it is applied in biblical studies. This is an excellent contribution to the continuing engagement between science and religion. -- Ted Poston, The University of Alabama Matthew Joss offers us an analytic theological account of the thorny problems of confirmation and his remedy: inference to the best explanation (IBE). This is both a primer on the various logics of confirmation (especially IBE!) and a fresh approach to weighing theologies and biblical interpretations. While readers might quibble with the specific uses within theology, and I would certainly be one of those quibblers, his thesis tackles the oft-ignored difficulties of confirmation and makes Weighing Interpretations another requisite entry on the topic for theologians and biblical scholars. -- Dru Johnson, The King's College Epistemological studies that pay attention to biblical studies are extremely rare. The field thus owes Joss great gratitude for addressing this issue head on and with great care. His theses are of interest for biblical scholars and theologians alike. Everybody who is interested in methodological questions will profit from this work - Bayesians and others. -- Christoph Heilig, University of Basel
