Skip to main content
Log in

Bayesian rules of updating

  • Published:
Erkenntnis Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper discusses the Bayesian updating rules of ordinary and Jeffrey conditionalisation. Their justification has been a topic of interest for the last quarter century, and several strategies proposed. None has been accepted as conclusive, and it is argued here that this is for a good reason; for by extending the domain of the probability function to include propositions describing the agent's present and future degrees of belief one can systematically generate a class of counterexamples to the rules. Dynamic Dutch Book and other arguments for them are examined critically. A concluding discussion attempts to put these results in perspective within the Bayesian approach.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • ArmendtB.: 1980, ‘Is There a Dutch Book Argument for Probability Kinematics?’, Philosophy of Science 47, 583–589.

    Google Scholar 

  • ChiharaC.: 1994, ‘The Howson-Urbach Proofs of Bayesian Principles’, in E.Eells and B.Skyrms (eds.), Probability and Conditionals, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 161–179.

    Google Scholar 

  • deFinettiB.: 1937, ‘Foresight, its Logical Laws, its Subjective Sources’, in H.Kyburg and H.Smokler (eds.), Studies in Subjective Probability, New York: John Wiley (1964), pp. 97–158.

    Google Scholar 

  • DiaconisP. and ZabellS.: 1982, ‘Updating Subjective Probability’, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 77, 822–830.

    Google Scholar 

  • EarmanJ.: 1992, Bayes or Bust?, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • EellsE.: 1982, Rational Decision and Causality, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • GoodI. J.: 1967, ‘On the Principle of Total Evidence’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 17, 319–321.

    Google Scholar 

  • HackingI.: 1967, ‘Slightly More Realistic Personal Probability’, Philosophy of Science 34, 311–325.

    Google Scholar 

  • HalmosP.: 1950, Measure Theory, New York: Van Nostrand.

    Google Scholar 

  • HowsonC. and UrbachP.: 1993, Scientific Reasoning: the Bayesian Approach (second edition), Chicago: Open Court.

    Google Scholar 

  • JeffreyR. C.: 1983, The Logic of Decision (second edition), Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • LewisD.: 1975, ‘The Probabilities of Conditionals and Conditional Probabilities’, The Philosophical Review LXXXV 297–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • RamseyF. P.: 1926, ‘Truth and Probability’, In R.Braithwaite (ed.), The Foundations of Mathematics and Other Logical Essays, London: Kegan Paul, pp. 156–198.

    Google Scholar 

  • TellerP.: 1973, ‘Conditionalisation and Observation’, Synthese 26, 218–258.

    Google Scholar 

  • vanFraassenB. C.: 1984, ‘Belief and the Will’, Journal of Philosophy 81, 235–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • vanFraassenB. C.: 1989, Laws and Symmetry, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • WilliamsP. M.: 1980, ‘Bayesian Conditionalisation and the Principle of Minimum Information’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 31, 131–144.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

This paper was completed with assistance from a Mind Association Fellowship. I would like to thank the Mind Association, and also Paul Castell for his patient advice on previous drafts.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Howson, C. Bayesian rules of updating. Erkenntnis 45, 195–208 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00276790

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00276790

Keywords

Navigation