Are we allowed to plug our books on this list?
In defence of objective Bayesianism
by Jon Williamson
How strongly should you believe the various propositions that you can
express?
That is the key question facing Bayesian epistemology. Subjective Bayesians
hold that it is largely (though not entirely) up to the agent as to which
degrees of belief to adopt. Objective Bayesians, on the other hand, maintain
that appropriate degrees of belief are largely (though not entirely)
determined by the agent's evidence. This book states and defends a version
of objective Bayesian epistemology. According to this version, objective
Bayesianism is characterized by three norms:
· Probability - degrees of belief should be probabilities
· Calibration - they should be calibrated with evidence
· Equivocation - they should otherwise equivocate between basic outcomes
Objective Bayesianism has been challenged on a number of different fronts.
For example, some claim it is poorly motivated, or fails to handle
qualitative evidence, or yields counter-intuitive degrees of belief after
updating, or suffers from a failure to learn from experience. It has also
been accused of being computationally intractable, susceptible to paradox,
language dependent, and of not being objective enough.
Especially suitable for graduates or researchers in philosophy of science,
foundations of statistics and artificial intelligence, the book argues that
these criticisms can be met and that objective Bayesianism is a promising
theory with an exciting agenda for further research.
Available now through all good bookshops, or direct from Oxford University
Press at:
http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199228003.do
I give a quick sketch of the justification of objective Bayesianism that I
favour in a book review, available at:
http://philmat.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/nkp019
or
http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/philosophy/jw/2009/deFinetti.pdf
all the best,
Jon
--------------
Jon Williamson
http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/philosophy/jw/
Philosophy, SECL, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NF, UK
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