The objectivity of Subjective Bayesianism
European Journal for Philosophy of Science 8 (3):539-558 (2018)
Abstract
Subjective Bayesianism is a major school of uncertain reasoning and statistical inference. It is often criticized for a lack of objectivity: it opens the door to the influence of values and biases, evidence judgments can vary substantially between scientists, it is not suited for informing policy decisions. My paper rebuts these concerns by connecting the debates on scientific objectivity and statistical method. First, I show that the above concerns arise equally for standard frequentist inference with null hypothesis significance tests. Second, the criticisms are based on specific senses of objectivity with unclear epistemic value. Third, I show that Subjective Bayesianism promotes other, epistemically relevant senses of scientific objectivity—most notably by increasing the transparency of scientific reasoning.Author's Profile
DOI
10.1007/s13194-018-0200-1
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Citations of this work
When a Crisis Becomes an Opportunity: The Role of Replications in Making Better Theories.Jane Suilin Lavelle - forthcoming - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
The Rationality of Science and the Inevitability of Defining Prior Beliefs in Empirical Research.Ulrich Dettweiler - 2019 - Frontiers in Psychology 10.
How to behave virtuously in an irrational world [Cómo comportarse de forma virtuosa en un mundo irracional].Massimo Pigliucci - 2020 - Disputatio. Philosophical Research Bulletin 9 (13).
References found in this work
Science as Social Knowledge: Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry.Helen E. Longino (ed.) - 1990 - Princeton University Press.