ABSTRACT
Few philosophical problems occupied Reichenbach as much as the problem of the justification of induction. How can we avoid the potential circularity of attempts that end up involving inductive reasoning—the difficulty that lay at the core of Hume’s skeptical reasoning? From his doctoral dissertation to the publication of his Theory of Probability twenty years later, Reichenbach aimed to provide mathematical and methodological foundations for his interpretation of probability and thereby furnish a solution to Hume’s problem of induction. It is argued that this proposal is unavailing, but that the discussions it triggered have inspired a rich amount of literature until the present day. This chapter analyzes how Reichenbach’s theory of probability and his conception of induction was received and looks closely at the criticism it received by Popper.
