Briggs

Applied Ethics: Peter Kreeft’s Summa Philosophica Part VIII

Read Part VI. Remember, we're doing summaries of summaries here; only bare sketches are possible. Buy his book for more detail. Question VIII is Applied Ethics. Time to get dirty!…

Philosophy Statistics

Subjective Versus Objective Bayes (Versus Frequentism): Part I

Definitions We first have to define what subjectivity and objectivity are and from these see what happens. For those unused to reading long stretches of prose, here is the conclusion,…

Fun

Is This The Real William M. Briggs?

Click on this button for further and more exciting delights. Follow @mattstat

Statistics

Poor Statistics Undermine The Reliability Of Neuroscience

Note carefully the picture which accompanies this post. The right-most glow is centered on the upper-middle-fifth amygdalic cingulatum region of your author's brain. Statistics show that this region is "associated"…

Book review Philosophy

General Ethics: Peter Kreeft’s Summa Philosophica Part VII

Read Part VI. Remember, we're doing summaries of summaries here; only bare sketches are possible. Buy his book for more detail. Question VII is fun: General Ethics. That morality really…

Statistics

Belief In God Associated With Psychiatric Symptoms

Medicalizing Belief Would you say that a guy who claims he believes in a "just" God suffers from "psychiatric symptoms"? What if we swap "just" for "critical." Do we have…

Statistics

Two Kinds Of Bad Statistics Caused By Publish & Perish

Two (main) kinds of bad statistics: (1) where they are used to claim what is not true, and (2) where they are used to claim what is true. The second…

Philosophy Statistics

Russian Roulette And Certainty

Suppose one fine day you pick up your Smith & Wesson 586 ($809 MSRP), a .357 Magnum revolver---which means that thingee in the middle spins around, advancing one round at…

spaceranger on Why There Are (Probably) No UFOs: “Climate Change”May 22, 2026
Two things I can never figure out are UFO pictures and police body cam videos.
Dave Narby on Why There Are (Probably) No UFOs: “Climate Change”May 22, 2026
There's been some pretty clear ones lately, at least to the resolution of the camera used, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcEEXLOORLI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zkZ3x1T0QU This…
James on Why There Are (Probably) No UFOs: “Climate Change”May 22, 2026
The same logic applies to the phenomenon of "ball lightning". It sounds credible, but there are no photos of it…
Uncle Mike on Blessed Memorial Day; No Class; See You WednesdayMay 21, 2026
Please enjoy your well-earned respite. Warmth is indeed a boon and blessing -- it's in the eighties here today and…
Cary D Cotterman on Why There Are (Probably) No UFOs: “Climate Change”May 20, 2026
There are clear photographs of just about any phenomenon imaginable, regardless of how fast, distant, small, or ephemeral it may…