ABSTRACT
An articulation and defense of Inference to the Best Explanation might proceed in three stages: identification, matching and guiding. First we identify both the inferential and the explanatory virtues. We specify what increases the probability of a hypothesis and what makes it a better potential explanation; that is, what makes a hypothesis likelier and what makes it lovelier. Second, we show that these virtues match: that the lovelier explanation is the likelier explanation, and vice versa. Third, we show that loveliness is the inquirer’s guide to likeliness, that we judge the probability of a hypothesis on the basis of how good an explanation it would provide.
