Fact, Fiction, and Forecast

In this classic of twentieth-century philosophy, Nelson Goodman examines how we justify reasoning from past experience to predictions about the future. Goodman revisits Hume's problem of induction and poses his own "new riddle of induction", using the invented predicate "grue" to show that not every pattern in data supports a prediction. He also explores counterfactual conditionals and possible worlds. The short book shaped later debates in philosophy of science and logic.

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Chris Dixon: “Nelson Goodman was one of my favorites. Funny enough, I just bought it again — Fact, Fiction, and Forecast.”