Inferring and Explaining

ix typos, and the like. One of the joys of this formof publishing is that errors can be relatively easily corrected. To My Fellow Philosophy Instructors I have used earlier drafs of this manuscript in two pretty diferent courses. Te most straight- forward of these are courses in critical thinking. Although I’d like to think that all the material would be useful in such contexts, I canwell imag- ine instructors who would choose to use only chapter 1 and chapters 4 through 12 or maybe chapter 13.Tis is thematerial that I have focused most of my critical thinking teaching on for the last forty years. The course that the book was originally designed for, however, was an introduction to philosophy course. At Eastern Oregon Univer- sity, the course I created was called Self, World, and God. Te God part, of course, was issues in the philosophy of religion, and the self part was issues in philosophical psychology and cognitive science. World was a catchall for epistemology, philosophy of science, and a general methodol- ogy of analyzing arguments in terms of infer- ence to the best explanation—the material sketched out in this book. Two Further Debts All authors need to acknowledge the help and support of their life partners. Understanding and sustenance from those one loves most are almost preconditions for successful writing. In my case, I have had the incredible good fortune to have a bright, talented, and unbelievably supportive wife for almost ffy years now. Col- leen is not just a beautiful lady that I love more than I can express, but for almost thirty years, she was my closest colleague during exactly the time the material in this book was being tested in my courses and when I began to compose the earliest drafs of the chapters herein contained. We team-taught together and discussed infer- ence to the best explanation so ofen that it is almost as hard to separate my thoughts on these questions from hers as it is to separate them from Larry Wright’s. Tanks, Colly. Finally, I need to acknowledge and thank the Library at Portland State University for award- ing me a grant to complete this book as part of their PDXOpen: Open Access Textbooks initia- tive. In particular, I owe Ms. Karen Bjork, head of digital initiatives, a huge thanks and shout- out. Karennot only championedmy project from the beginning but coached and cajoled to keep me on track in my writing and fnally secured additional funding for professional copyediting. Tank you very much, Karen. Notes 1 Simon Blackburn, Tink (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 5. 2 Larry Wright, Better Reasoning (New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1982). PrefaCe