Cognitive-constructivism, quine, dogmas of empiricism, and münchhausen’s Trilemma

Abstract

The Bayesian research group at University of São Paulo has been exploring a specific version of cognitive constructivism (Cog-Con) that has, among its most salient features, a distinctive objective character. Cog-Con is supported by a specially designed measure of statistical significance, namely, ev(H |X)—the Bayesian epistemic value of sharp hypotheses H, given the observed data X. This article explores possible parallels or contrasts between Cog-Con and the epistemological framework developed by the philosopherWillard van Orman Quine.