Philosophy – Page 105 – William M. Briggs

“Freedom Includes Total Diversity”

Here's the setup. That wise man Barack Obama nominated James "Wally" Brewster Jr. as Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. Brewster is a well known "bundler" to the administration, adept at…

Culture Philosophy

Government Became Unstoppable Yesterday

Regardless whether you cheered or wept at yesterday's DOMA ruling, you will have done nothing but affirmed your own uninformed prejudices if you do not read the opinions of the…

Philosophy Statistics

Direct And Inverse Probability: The Bayesian Way

Class is almost over! Just three days (including today) left. I'm way behind reading comments. All logic, of which probability is an example, begins with a fixed list of premises…

Philosophy Statistics

Bayes Always Works: An Answer To Senn; Part V

Read Part IV. We're almost done. Only one more after this. There are examples without number of the proper use of Bayes's Theorem: the probability you have cancer given a…

Philosophy Statistics

All Probability Is Conditional: An Answer To Senn; Part IV

Read Part III. Still with me? Hope so, because we're only on the second page of Senn's article (but don't fret; we'll be skipping most of it). Review: in logical-probability…

Philosophy Statistics

Probability Isn’t “Fair”: An Answer To Senn; Part III

A quick reminder that we're trying to unpack the meaning of the "is fair" in the proposition "This die is fair," and trying to deduce the probability this proposition is…

Philosophy Statistics

There Is Only One Kind Of Probability: An Answer To Senn; Part II

Read Part I. Some of this material is explained in detail in this series. Just after the introduction, Senn starts his argument by claiming an "important distinction between two types…

Philosophy Statistics

Bayes Is More Than Probably Right: An Answer To Senn; Part I

Stephen Senn very kindly answered a post I wrote on p-values (Unsignificant Statistics: Or Die P-Value, Die Die Die) by sending me his "You May Believe You Are a Bayesian…

Briggs on Eggs and ‘PFAS-Easter’ or Selling Fear on the Day of Resurrection — Guest Post by Jaap HanekampMay 13, 2025
Hagfish, I still remember my grandpa putting a tiny saccharin tablet into his coffee.
spetzer86 on Eggs and ‘PFAS-Easter’ or Selling Fear on the Day of Resurrection — Guest Post by Jaap HanekampMay 13, 2025
I ultimate end-point is that we all die. Some sooner, some later. You can be healthy as a horse one…
Hagfish Bagpipe on Eggs and ‘PFAS-Easter’ or Selling Fear on the Day of Resurrection — Guest Post by Jaap HanekampMay 13, 2025
Reminds me of the cyclamate and saccharin scares of the 60s-70s. Media hyping bladder tumors in lab rats supposedly caused…
dumbest.ox on Academics Call Pregnancy A DiseaseMay 12, 2025
President Carter had the federal rules changed to reclassify normal pregnancy / birth, as illness / disease, in order to…
spetzer86 on Academics Call Pregnancy A DiseaseMay 12, 2025
I'm thinking glasses wouldn't help given that the act is usually done in close proximity and in the dark. Even…