Date of Original Version
2008
Type
Article
Published In
Behavioral and Brain Sciences 32, 1 (Feb 2009): 86-87.
Abstract or Table of Contents
Oaksford & Chater (O&C) aim to provide teleological explanations of behavior by giving an appropriate normative standard: Bayesian inference. We argue that there is no uncontroversial independent justification for the normativity of Bayesian inference, and that O&C fail to satisfy a necessary condition for teleological explanations: demonstration that the normative prescription played a causal role in the behavior's existence.