Here, in a new edition, is Nelson Goodman's provocative philosophical classic--a
book that, according to Science, raised a storm of controversy when it was firs
t published in 1954, and one that remains on the front lines of philosophical de
bate. How is it that we feel confident in generalizing from experience in some w
ays but not in others? How are generalizations that are warranted to be distingu
ished from those that are not? Goodman shows that these questions resist formal
solution and his demonstration has been taken by nativists like Chomsky and Fodo
r as proof that neither scientific induction nor ordinary learning can proceed w
ithout an a priori, or innate, ordering of hypotheses. In his new foreword to th
is edition, Hilary Putnam forcefully rejects these nativist claims.
