The Principal Principle and subjective Bayesianism

European Journal for Philosophy of Science 10 (1):1-14 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper poses a problem for Lewis’ Principal Principle in a subjective Bayesian framework: we show that, where chances inform degrees of belief, subjective Bayesianism fails to validate normal informal standards of what is reasonable. This problem points to a tension between the Principal Principle and the claim that conditional degrees of belief are conditional probabilities. However, one version of objective Bayesianism has a straightforward resolution to this problem, because it avoids this latter claim. The problem, then, offers some support to this version of objective Bayesianism.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,349

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

How Uncertain Do We Need to Be?Jon Williamson - 2014 - Erkenntnis 79 (6):1249-1271.
On the Formal Consistency of the Principal Principle.Gergei Bana - 2016 - Philosophy of Science 83 (5):988-1001.
Bayesianism and Simplicity.Ben Escoto - 2004 - Dissertation, Stanford University
Quantum Bayesianism Assessed.John Earman - unknown - The Monist 102 (4):403-423.
The Book of Evidence. [REVIEW]Stathis Psillos - 2004 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 68 (3):740-743.
Bayesianism and reliable scientific inquiry.Cory Juhl - 1993 - Philosophy of Science 60 (2):302-319.
Subjective Probabilities as Basis for Scientific Reasoning?Franz Huber - 2005 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 56 (1):101-116.
Accuracy, Chance, and the Principal Principle.Richard Pettigrew - 2012 - Philosophical Review 121 (2):241-275.

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-12-03

Downloads
46 (#337,879)

6 months
17 (#141,290)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Jon Williamson
University of Kent

Citations of this work

Direct inference and probabilistic accounts of induction.Jon Williamson - 2023 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 54 (3):451-472.
Indifference to Anti-Humean Chances.J. Dmitri Gallow - 2022 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 52 (5):485-501.

View all 6 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

In Defence of Objective Bayesianism.Jon Williamson - 2010 - Oxford University Press.
Higher Order Evidence.David Christensen - 2010 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 81 (1):185-215.
Probability Theory. The Logic of Science.Edwin T. Jaynes - 2002 - Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. Edited by G. Larry Bretthorst.

View all 24 references / Add more references