A Comment on the Problem of Unconceived Alternatives

Abstract

For a long time, philosophers presupposed that in science, for a given theory, there is an infinite number of possible alternatives available. This is one of the reasons why the strategy of eliminative inference was often neglected. Additionally, based on vast historical observations, Stanford (2006) formulated the so-called ‘problem of unconceived alternatives’, which can be understood as a combination of the underdetermination problem and the pessimistic induction. This article serves as a short introduction to the problem of unconceived alternatives and the related positions and arguments.