Principle of indifference (16TH CENTURY).
The fundamental principle of statistical theory that unless there is a reason for believing otherwise, each possible event should be regarded as equally likely.
In this crude form, the principle leads to paradoxes because we can group the alternatives in different ways: the next flower I meet might be blue or red, so its being blue has a probability of one-half; but it also might be blue or crimson or scarlet, so the probability of blue is only one-third).
Evidently we require not mere absence of knowledge of reasons favoring one alternative over another, but knowledge of the absence of such reasons. But this may be hard to achieve, even in apparently symmetrical cases like the outcomes of throwing a die; for example, what do we do about the possibility of its standing on edge, or the fact that the paint on the ‘six’ side will be heavier than on the ‘one’ side?
Also see: propensity theory of probability
Source:
W C Kneale, Probability and Induction (1949), p.31, 34
Table of Contents
- 1 Videos
- 2 Related Products
- 2.1 Big Pharma: Market Failure
- 2.2 Failure Models Derived Through the Indifference Principle (UCB-ENG-8293)
- 2.3 Savage (Songs from a Broken World)
- 2.4 The Ethics of Ambiguity
- 2.5 The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror
- 2.6 Foundations of Economics: A Beginner's Companion
- 2.7 Perspectives on Satipatthana
- 2.8 Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City
- 2.9 Saints of Ninth- and Tenth-Century Greece (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library)
- 2.10 The Noticer Collection: Sometimes, all a person needs is a little perspective.
- plenitude principle
- range theories of probability
- impossibility of a gambling system principle
- limited independent variety principle
- confirmation principle
Videos
Big Pharma: Market Failure
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Gerald Friedman, Donald Light, Wendell Potter (Actors)
- Vincent Mondillo (Director) - Richard Master (Producer)
- English (Playback Language)
- English (Subtitle)
Failure Models Derived Through the Indifference Principle (UCB-ENG-8293)
- Richard Barlow (Author)
- 05/31/1996 (Publication Date) - PN (Publisher)
Savage (Songs from a Broken World)
- Gary Numan- Savage (Songs From A Broken World)
- Audio CD – Audiobook
- BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd (Publisher)
The Ethics of Ambiguity
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- de Beauvoir, Simone (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 164 Pages - 05/08/2018 (Publication Date) - Open Road Media (Publisher)
The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror
- Hippocampus Press
- Ligotti, Thomas (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 248 Pages - 04/30/2011 (Publication Date) - Hippocampus Press (Publisher)
Foundations of Economics: A Beginner's Companion
- Routledge
- Yanis Varoufakis (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 424 Pages - 06/18/1998 (Publication Date) - Routledge (Publisher)
Perspectives on Satipatthana
- Windhorse Publications UK
- Analayo, Bhikkhu (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 336 Pages - 03/18/2014 (Publication Date) - Windhorse Publications (Publisher)
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Grandin, Greg (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 436 Pages - 04/27/2010 (Publication Date) - Metropolitan Books (Publisher)
Saints of Ninth- and Tenth-Century Greece (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library)
- Hardcover Book
- English (Publication Language)
- 384 Pages - 05/06/2019 (Publication Date) - Harvard University Press (Publisher)
The Noticer Collection: Sometimes, all a person needs is a little perspective.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Andrews, Andy (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 322 Pages - 02/02/2016 (Publication Date) - Thomas Nelson (Publisher)
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