文档介绍：Specification: The Pattern That
Signifies Intelligence
By William A. Dembski
August 15, 2005, version
1 Specification as a Form of Warrant …………………..………….……………….. 1
2 Fisherian Significance Testing …………………………………..………………… 2
3 Specifications via Probability Densities ……………………………..…………… 5
4 Specifications pressibility ……………………………………….………… 9
5 Prespecifications vs. Specifications ……………………………………….……… 12
6 Specificity …………………………………………………………………………… 15
7 plexity ……………………………………………………………… 20
8 Design Detection …………………………………………………………………… 25
Acknowledgment ………..……………………….… 31
Addendum 1: Note to Readers of TDI & NFL ………..……………………….… 32
Addendum 2: Bayesian Methods ………………………………………………… 35
Endnotes ……...……………………………………………….……………………..38
ABSTRACT: Specification denotes the type of pattern that highly improbable
events must exhibit before one is entitled to attribute them to intelligence. This
paper analyzes the concept of specification and shows how it applies to design
detection (., the detection of intelligence on the basis of circumstantial
evidence). Always in the background throughout this discussion is the
fundamental question of Intelligent Design (ID): Can objects, even if nothing is
known about how they arose, exhibit features that reliably signal the action of an
intelligent cause? This paper reviews, clarifies, and extends previous work on
specification in my books The Design Inference and No Free Lunch.
1 Specification as a Form of Warrant
In the 1990s, Alvin Plantinga focused much of his work on the concept of warrant. During that
time, he published three substantial volumes on that For Plantinga, warrant is what turns
true belief into knowledge. To see what is at stake with warrant, consider the following remark
by Bertrand Russell on the nature of error:
Error is not only the absolute error of believing what is false, but also the quantitative