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Piecewise Versus Total Support: How to Deal with Background Information in Likelihood Arguments

Jantzen, Benjamin (2012) Piecewise Versus Total Support: How to Deal with Background Information in Likelihood Arguments. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

The use of the Likelihood Principle as a general tool for assessing rival hypotheses has been criticized for its ambiguous treatment of background information. The LP endorses radically different answers depending on what information is designated as background versus evidence. I argue that once one distinguishes between two questions about evidentiary support, the ambiguity vanishes. I demonstrate this resolution by applying it to a debate over the status of the ‘fine-tuning argument’.

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Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Jantzen, Benjamin
Additional Information: Comments welcome.
Keywords: likelihood, fine-tuning, background information, observation selection effect, total evidence
Subjects: General Issues > Confirmation/Induction
Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
General Issues > Science and Religion
Depositing User: Benjamin Jantzen
Date Deposited: 13 Nov 2012 04:52
Last Modified: 13 Nov 2012 04:52
Item ID: 9439
Subjects: General Issues > Confirmation/Induction
Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
General Issues > Science and Religion
Date: May 2012
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9439

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