What is the fallacy of approximation?

Many philosophers appeal to the “fallacy of approximation”, or “problem of second best”. However, despite the pervasiveness of such appeals, there has been only a single attempt to provide a systematic account of what the fallacy is. We identify the shortcomings of this account and propose a better...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: HAMMERTON, Matthew, PATRA, Sovan
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3671
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4929/viewcontent/FallacyofApproximation_av.pdf
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Singapore Management University
Language: English
Description
Summary:Many philosophers appeal to the “fallacy of approximation”, or “problem of second best”. However, despite the pervasiveness of such appeals, there has been only a single attempt to provide a systematic account of what the fallacy is. We identify the shortcomings of this account and propose a better one in its place. Our account not only captures all the contexts in which approximation-based reasoning occurs but also systematically explains the several different ways in which it can be in error.