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	<title>Comments for Choice &amp; Inference</title>
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	<link>http://choiceandinference.com</link>
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	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:34:57 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Comment on In defence of objective Bayesianism by Jon Williamson</title>
		<link>http://choiceandinference.com/?p=934&#038;cpage=1#comment-380</link>
		<dc:creator>Jon Williamson</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:34:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://choiceandinference.com/?p=934#comment-380</guid>
		<description>Hi Jan,

`Bayesianism&#039;&#039; is used in very different ways according to whether one wants to refer to a view of epistemology, statistics, confirmation theory, decision theory, etc. Modulo that ambiguity, `Objective Bayesianism&#039;&#039; is used fairly uniformly to refer to Bayesianism with more-or-less objective (i.e., unique) probabilities. 

As to how objective priors are to be achieved varies from author to author. Jaynes advocated the maximum entropy principle and Rosenkrantz followed his usage - I guess that is &#039;&#039;classic&#039;&#039; objective Bayesianism. Salmon advocated frequency constraints but still called his view &#039;&#039;objective Bayesianism&#039;&#039;. Reference-prior statisticians include an element of convention, but still call it &#039;&#039;objective Bayesianism&#039;&#039;.

In my book I characterise objective Bayesianism in terms of stronger constraints on probabilities than are advocated by subjectivists - this fits most of the uses fairly well I think.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi Jan,</p>
<p>`Bayesianism&#8221; is used in very different ways according to whether one wants to refer to a view of epistemology, statistics, confirmation theory, decision theory, etc. Modulo that ambiguity, `Objective Bayesianism&#8221; is used fairly uniformly to refer to Bayesianism with more-or-less objective (i.e., unique) probabilities. </p>
<p>As to how objective priors are to be achieved varies from author to author. Jaynes advocated the maximum entropy principle and Rosenkrantz followed his usage &#8211; I guess that is &#8221;classic&#8221; objective Bayesianism. Salmon advocated frequency constraints but still called his view &#8221;objective Bayesianism&#8221;. Reference-prior statisticians include an element of convention, but still call it &#8221;objective Bayesianism&#8221;.</p>
<p>In my book I characterise objective Bayesianism in terms of stronger constraints on probabilities than are advocated by subjectivists &#8211; this fits most of the uses fairly well I think.</p>
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		<title>Comment on In defence of objective Bayesianism by Jan Sprenger</title>
		<link>http://choiceandinference.com/?p=934&#038;cpage=1#comment-379</link>
		<dc:creator>Jan Sprenger</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 22 Aug 2010 08:23:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://choiceandinference.com/?p=934#comment-379</guid>
		<description>Jon, I am just preparing my talk for Canterbury. Do you happen to know the history of why &quot;Objective Bayesianism&quot; denotes vastly different things in philosophy and statistics, respectively?</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Jon, I am just preparing my talk for Canterbury. Do you happen to know the history of why &#8220;Objective Bayesianism&#8221; denotes vastly different things in philosophy and statistics, respectively?</p>
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		<title>Comment on Means by Gregory Wheeler</title>
		<link>http://choiceandinference.com/?p=998&#038;cpage=1#comment-378</link>
		<dc:creator>Gregory Wheeler</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:49:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://choiceandinference.com/?p=998#comment-378</guid>
		<description>Great link, Paul! Thanks for posting, -g</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Great link, Paul! Thanks for posting, -g</p>
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		<title>Comment on In defence of objective Bayesianism by Gregory Wheeler</title>
		<link>http://choiceandinference.com/?p=934&#038;cpage=1#comment-377</link>
		<dc:creator>Gregory Wheeler</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 May 2010 16:06:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://choiceandinference.com/?p=934#comment-377</guid>
		<description>Congratulations, Jon!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Congratulations, Jon!</p>
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		<title>Comment on What is a formal epistemologist, and where does someone go to become one? by Joost Mulder</title>
		<link>http://choiceandinference.com/?p=540&#038;cpage=1#comment-253</link>
		<dc:creator>Joost Mulder</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:19:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://choiceandinference.com/?p=540#comment-253</guid>
		<description>Being a student at Tilburg I already have been exposed to some formal stuff (especially Bayesian stuff). However, my mathematical and logical baggage is limited. Every time I am confronted with huge bodies of formal stuff I am overwhelmed. Drawing upon Neurath&#039;s metaphor, it feels like I am out on the ocean, with a very small ship, or more precise, a shaky raft, and I have to start undoing this raft of its shakiness, and then built it up, while on the sea. In mathematics and logic, it probably will never be possible to start off from the shore and then gently walk your way into the water, but surely some ways are better than others in order to become master. So I guess what I was looking for with my question was a manual to prevent my ship from sinking every time. Now you guys gave me this nice set of tips. It makes me enthusiastic, hungry to improve my formal skills. Yet I also realize that this isn&#039;t something you learn by doing it a few hours a week. So I guess I will take a year &#039;off&#039; next academic year to plunge myself into the formal pool, so that I can return as a real captain of my ship. Thanks!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Being a student at Tilburg I already have been exposed to some formal stuff (especially Bayesian stuff). However, my mathematical and logical baggage is limited. Every time I am confronted with huge bodies of formal stuff I am overwhelmed. Drawing upon Neurath&#8217;s metaphor, it feels like I am out on the ocean, with a very small ship, or more precise, a shaky raft, and I have to start undoing this raft of its shakiness, and then built it up, while on the sea. In mathematics and logic, it probably will never be possible to start off from the shore and then gently walk your way into the water, but surely some ways are better than others in order to become master. So I guess what I was looking for with my question was a manual to prevent my ship from sinking every time. Now you guys gave me this nice set of tips. It makes me enthusiastic, hungry to improve my formal skills. Yet I also realize that this isn&#8217;t something you learn by doing it a few hours a week. So I guess I will take a year &#8216;off&#8217; next academic year to plunge myself into the formal pool, so that I can return as a real captain of my ship. Thanks!</p>
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		<title>Comment on What is a formal epistemologist, and where does someone go to become one? by Jeffrey Helzner</title>
		<link>http://choiceandinference.com/?p=540&#038;cpage=1#comment-252</link>
		<dc:creator>Jeffrey Helzner</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:13:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://choiceandinference.com/?p=540#comment-252</guid>
		<description>Joost,

Greg and Branden have given you some excellent suggestions.  Let me add a few of a different flavor.  First, you might enjoy taking a look at something like &lt;i&gt;The Principles of Mathematics&lt;/i&gt; by Russell, or perhaps some selections from the Benacerraf and Putnam collection.  Second, you might also want to look at something like Steve Awodey&#039;s book on category theory, which provides a very nice introduction to the structural aspects of mathematics, and it does so in a way that should be accessible to many philosophers.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Joost,</p>
<p>Greg and Branden have given you some excellent suggestions.  Let me add a few of a different flavor.  First, you might enjoy taking a look at something like <i>The Principles of Mathematics</i> by Russell, or perhaps some selections from the Benacerraf and Putnam collection.  Second, you might also want to look at something like Steve Awodey&#8217;s book on category theory, which provides a very nice introduction to the structural aspects of mathematics, and it does so in a way that should be accessible to many philosophers.</p>
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		<title>Comment on What is a formal epistemologist, and where does someone go to become one? by Joost Mulder</title>
		<link>http://choiceandinference.com/?p=540&#038;cpage=1#comment-251</link>
		<dc:creator>Joost Mulder</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:44:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://choiceandinference.com/?p=540#comment-251</guid>
		<description>Thanks for the help and advice!
Joost</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Thanks for the help and advice!<br />
Joost</p>
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		<title>Comment on What is a formal epistemologist, and where does someone go to become one? by Mayo</title>
		<link>http://choiceandinference.com/?p=540&#038;cpage=1#comment-250</link>
		<dc:creator>Mayo</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:43:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://choiceandinference.com/?p=540#comment-250</guid>
		<description>Hi!
I got an e-mail about some updates here, so came to check it out, whereas I hadn&#039;t gotten the earlier reply to me by Wheeler.  I really don&#039;t see what reduction to Tarski sentences has to do with being able to employ statistical methods to answer questions about evidence, obtain reliable methods, etc.  Maybe I&#039;m missing...
But I do think philosophers have tended to see the role of probability in inference in terms of deductive probability theory whereas that doesn&#039;t get you very far when it comes to inductive-statistical inference based on probabilistic models.  With statistical inference, you don&#039;t merely get out what you put in.  Since this is a forum where hopefully we can say what we really think, however radical, I would recommend that philosophy of science students learn statistics in place of the usual smattering of probability theory/Bayes&#039; theory methods.  Then they can get beyond reconstructing epistemological intuitions (that we&#039;re supposed to start with) and actually see how reliable statistical inferences are made.  We could then get beyond the &quot;problem of induction&quot; that seems such a stumbling block in philosophy, and get on to the business of finding/building reliable methods and inferences. Mayo</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi!<br />
I got an e-mail about some updates here, so came to check it out, whereas I hadn&#8217;t gotten the earlier reply to me by Wheeler.  I really don&#8217;t see what reduction to Tarski sentences has to do with being able to employ statistical methods to answer questions about evidence, obtain reliable methods, etc.  Maybe I&#8217;m missing&#8230;<br />
But I do think philosophers have tended to see the role of probability in inference in terms of deductive probability theory whereas that doesn&#8217;t get you very far when it comes to inductive-statistical inference based on probabilistic models.  With statistical inference, you don&#8217;t merely get out what you put in.  Since this is a forum where hopefully we can say what we really think, however radical, I would recommend that philosophy of science students learn statistics in place of the usual smattering of probability theory/Bayes&#8217; theory methods.  Then they can get beyond reconstructing epistemological intuitions (that we&#8217;re supposed to start with) and actually see how reliable statistical inferences are made.  We could then get beyond the &#8220;problem of induction&#8221; that seems such a stumbling block in philosophy, and get on to the business of finding/building reliable methods and inferences. Mayo</p>
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