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 How Can You Tell If You Have ESP?June 30, 2025
Spetzer, All good points. I go into many of them later in the chapter.
spetzer86 on How Can You Tell If You Have ESP?June 30, 2025
If the receiver and sender independently wrote down the guess / card with no verbal communication, it might be better.…
JH on Class 56: The Best Model!June 29, 2025
How can you make predictions in the big data era without using a model? Trust your gut.
Jonas P. Kay on Which God Are You Rejecting? David Bentley Hart’s The Experience of God, Part IJune 28, 2025
I answer all by saying you cannot get something from nothing. There is beauty in its simplicity and it is…
Johnno on England’s Mandatory Suicide & WomenJune 27, 2025
So what's the betting pool on the odds about when and in which country will be the first to perform…