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Andrew M

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Yes, that all makes sense. Indeed. So it's interesting that one can set up wagers for halfer, thirder or quarterer outcomes. But it seems to me that p...
June 09, 2018 at 10:35
If I understand you, you are presenting a quarterer scenario where the probabilities conditioned on being awake are: Mon Tue Heads 1/4 0 Tails 1/4 1/2...
June 08, 2018 at 21:42
P(Awake) = 1 is true when Beauty is awake in the experiment. So, under that condition, P(Heads|Awake) = P(Heads) = 1/3. (See argument below.) No. In y...
June 07, 2018 at 19:14
True, but the quarterer would agree (first awakening is 1 if heads, 1/3 if tails). However the probability of being Monday or Tuesday is also independ...
June 07, 2018 at 06:39
One thought here is that you could use a similar tree structure to argue for a quarter probability for heads. The first two branches represent the fir...
June 06, 2018 at 10:39
Yes, the host's information is irrelevant if you can just switch to the other two doors instead of specifying a particular door number.
June 06, 2018 at 10:12
You're mistaken. (L6) P+(Heads) = 2/3 is a consequence of Lewis' halfer argument and it contradicts Elga's (E1) P+(Heads) = 1/2. As Lewis says: "I rej...
June 06, 2018 at 01:55
I am aware why it has the plus. As the paper says, "Let P+ be her credence function just after she's told that it's Monday". From Lewis' halfer argume...
June 06, 2018 at 01:32
Yes, to expand, P(Heads|Awake) = P(Heads and Awake) / P(Awake) = 1/4 / 3/4 = 1/3. What that equation is doing is redistributing probability from the s...
June 06, 2018 at 01:13
I'm saying that P(Heads|Monday) = 2/3 is a consequence of the halfer position. Do you agree? BTW, that is David Lewis' (L6) which contradicts Elga's (...
June 06, 2018 at 00:41
P(Heads|Awake) = (P(Heads) * P(Awake|Heads)) / P(Awake) = (1/2 * 1/2) / 3/4 = 1/3 There are four equally probable states in the experiment, three awak...
June 06, 2018 at 00:11
Yes. Your initially chosen door has 1/3 probability of containing the prize. The other two doors have a total of 2/3 probability. When the host shows ...
June 05, 2018 at 23:56
I'm saying that for a halfer, P(Heads|Monday) = 2/3. As a separate hypothetical, if Beauty is told that it is Monday during the experiment, then she w...
June 05, 2018 at 23:44
How so? Isn't the host telling you a specific door number (that doesn't contain the prize) information? The event of waking provides information about...
June 05, 2018 at 03:40
Beauty (as a thirder) knew at the time before the experiment that P(Heads) = 1/2. She also knew at the time before the experiment that P(Heads|Awake) ...
June 05, 2018 at 03:31
I'm not sure if you're just disputing the thirder position, or disputing my characterization of the thirder position for the 5/6 heads-weighted coin. ...
June 05, 2018 at 03:16
We shouldn't be indifferent between the two possible states for a weighted coin. So probabilities can't be distributed on that basis. But those two st...
June 04, 2018 at 08:46
Since there are seven awake states (out of twelve distinct states), I would be indifferent between them and so distribute probabilities as follows: Mo...
June 04, 2018 at 07:39
In the Monty Hall problem, the host gives you information that changes the probabilities that you assign to each door. That information is new to you....
June 04, 2018 at 06:18
No, 1/3. Both the halfer and the thirder positions are consistent. The difference stems from how the probabilities are distributed when conditioning o...
June 04, 2018 at 05:52
She knows it must be either Monday or (Tuesday and Tails). Do you agree that P(Heads|Awake) = 1/3?
June 03, 2018 at 15:01
You're correct. But that's because of this: If a bet is instead placed every time Beauty awakes, then the £99 bet on tails is the best bet. Thirders a...
June 03, 2018 at 13:48
No. Nice analysis!
June 03, 2018 at 07:23
That's not correct. Beauty knows that she is awake and that is relevant information. P(Heads) = 1/2 P(Heads|Awake) = 1/3 Whether 1/2 or 1/3 is assigne...
June 03, 2018 at 07:20
I agree that it's not possible to see your hands and be mistaken. But that is not what the skeptic is saying. The skeptic is saying that even if you d...
May 28, 2018 at 03:33
As I see it, if (1)(b) is logically possible, then (*) is coherent. That it seems to the subject that he's in state (a) (and (b) seems impossible to h...
May 27, 2018 at 05:33
You may also be interested in Carroll and Sebens' derivation of the Born rule which Sean Carroll discusses on his blog. I think emergent branching asi...
May 02, 2018 at 14:07
I'm not sure that you and Apo are saying anything very different to MWI proponents such as David Wallace regarding a preferred basis, emergence and pr...
May 02, 2018 at 05:33
In his defense, he does note that infinity seduced him at an early age...
May 02, 2018 at 01:51
Superdeterminism is a one-world theory that apparently has about three supporters including 't Hooft. It basically says that if you have a beam splitt...
May 02, 2018 at 01:43
Zero-squared is still zero, experimental imprecisions aside. It doesn't have to be that way. You can reject actual infinities and consider limits such...
May 02, 2018 at 00:51
It takes a theory to beat a theory... I think David Wallace's comments are worth reading on this subject (particularly his answers to Q9 and Q10).
May 02, 2018 at 00:28
No. That's more a conceptual/philosophical issue that one brings to QM. And, as it happens, the Schrodinger equation is deterministic. For fun, you mi...
May 02, 2018 at 00:12
Yes I agree with the blog post - I think the basic argument boils down to both form and matter being indispensable categories that aren't reducible to...
May 01, 2018 at 00:24
True, but genuine cognitive shifts don't have to end there. As you know, Aristotle was well-versed in Plato's ideas and his hylomorphism retained univ...
April 30, 2018 at 02:33
I think it just comes down to one's fundamental philosophy, especially one's position on universals. It seems to me that you start with mind (a univer...
April 29, 2018 at 22:41
By "objective" here, do you mean "absolute"? On your view, numbers seem to have an existence independent of matter (and mind) which would qualify as P...
April 15, 2018 at 06:25
I would classify the Copenhagen Interpretation as anti-realist since it doesn't provide an explanation of what is going on, just probabilities. Bohr's...
April 13, 2018 at 13:33
I'm just referring to realism vs idealism here where we are looking for a coherent mechanism, not just an instrumental use of a formalism. Yes. I'm no...
April 13, 2018 at 01:10
It isn't. The results are just what one would expect from QM. It can if the assumption of counterfactual (value) definiteness is dropped. Which is wha...
April 12, 2018 at 23:41
Isn't that just a question of the logic of the language used? But whether or not a conscious observer is present (say, before life emerged on Earth), ...
April 12, 2018 at 12:49
Do you include Heisenberg and Bohr in that assessment?
April 12, 2018 at 10:43
All that is required is two physical systems that interact to produce information. Those physical systems need not have been constructed by anyone. He...
April 12, 2018 at 04:53
That usage of "observer" is conventional in special relativity and quantum mechanics. From Wikipedia: Physicists are always going to develop technical...
April 12, 2018 at 03:43
Yes, I think the world exists independently of mind (per Aristotelian realism rather than materialism). My initial comment in this thread was to point...
April 10, 2018 at 14:43
A measurement is a physical interaction between quantum systems. In the reference frame of the apparatus, a definite particle spin result has been rec...
April 10, 2018 at 13:41
Sure. Counterfactual definiteness means that if a measurement of a physical property is not in fact performed, it nonetheless has a definite value. Fo...
April 10, 2018 at 13:00
Just some comments on his opening paragraph... It's actually not a challenge at all. Kastrup's claims depend on a narrow definition of realism as coun...
April 10, 2018 at 01:55
I agree. Yes, if properties are understood in an absolute sense. But they can also be understood as implying a relational context. So to use your colo...
March 30, 2018 at 06:46
No, Platonic existence is abstract and immaterial. From Wikipedia: It wouldn't. On an Aristotelian view, all that is needed is the familiar distinctio...
March 29, 2018 at 01:25