Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'The Sign of Four', 'The Individual, the State, and the Common Good' and 'Truth and Probability'

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4 ideas

10. Modality / B. Possibility / 8. Conditionals / d. Non-truthfunction conditionals

13766	'If' is the same as 'given that', so the degrees of belief should conform to probability theory [Ramsey, by Ramsey]
	Full Idea: Ramsey suggested that 'if', 'given that' and 'on the supposition that' come to the same thing, and that the degrees of belief in the antecedent should then conform to probability theory.
	From: report of Frank P. Ramsey (Truth and Probability [1926]) by Frank P. Ramsey - Law and Causality B
	A reaction: [compressed]

14. Science / C. Induction / 1. Induction

22200	If you eliminate the impossible, the truth will remain, even if it is weird [Conan Doyle]
	Full Idea: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
	From: Arthur Conan Doyle (The Sign of Four [1890], Ch. 6)
	A reaction: A beautiful statement, by Sherlock Holmes, of Eliminative Induction. It is obviously not true, of course. Many options may still face you after you have eliminated what is actually impossible.

14. Science / C. Induction / 6. Bayes's Theorem

19143	Ramsey gave axioms for an uncertain agent to decide their preferences [Ramsey, by Davidson]
	Full Idea: Ramsey gave an axiomatic treatment of preference in the face of uncertainty, when applied to a particular agent.
	From: report of Frank P. Ramsey (Truth and Probability [1926]) by Donald Davidson - Truth and Predication 2
	A reaction: This is evidently the beginnings of Bayesian decision theory.

24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / g. Liberalism critique

22251	Liberalism may fail because it neglects the shared nature of what we pursue and protect [Haldane]
	Full Idea: I am interested in the claim that liberalism fails inasmuch as it neglects, and cannot accommodate, the fact that some or all of the goods we pursue, and which a system of rights is concerned to protect, are goods possessed in common.
	From: John Haldane (The Individual, the State, and the Common Good [1996], III)
	A reaction: It depends how individualistic we take liberalism to be. Extreme individualism (Nozick) strikes me as crazy. If 'we' erect a statue to some dubious politicians, it might be presented as a common good, but actually be despised by many.