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Comparative infinite lottery logic
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A ( IF 1 ) Pub Date : 2020-05-24 , DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2020.05.004
Matthew W Parker 1
Affiliation  

As an application of his Material Theory of Induction, Norton (2018; manuscript) argues that the correct inductive logic for a fair infinite lottery, and also for evaluating eternal inflation multiverse models, is radically different from standard probability theory. This is due to a requirement of label independence. It follows, Norton argues, that finite additivity fails, and any two sets of outcomes with the same cardinality and co-cardinality have the same chance. This makes the logic useless for evaluating multiverse models based on self-locating chances, so Norton claims that we should despair of such attempts. However, his negative results depend on a certain reification of chance, consisting in the treatment of inductive support as the value of a function, a value not itself affected by relabeling. Here we define a purely comparative infinite lottery logic, where there are no primitive chances but only a relation of ‘at most as likely’ and its derivatives. This logic satisfies both label independence and a comparative version of additivity as well as several other desirable properties, and it draws finer distinctions between events than Norton's. Consequently, it yields better advice about choosing between sets of lottery tickets than Norton's, but it does not appear to be any more helpful for evaluating multiverse models. Hence, the limitations of Norton's logic are not entirely due to the failure of additivity, nor to the fact that all infinite, co-infinite sets of outcomes have the same chance, but to a more fundamental problem: We have no well-motivated way of comparing disjoint countably infinite sets.



中文翻译:

比较无限彩票逻辑

作为其材料归纳理论的应用,诺顿(2018 年;手稿)认为,公平无限彩票以及评估永恒暴胀多元宇宙模型的正确归纳逻辑与标准概率论完全不同。这是由于标签独立性的要求。因此,诺顿认为,有限可加性失败了,任何两组具有相同基数和共基数的结果都有相同的机会。这使得基于自我定位机会评估多元宇宙模型的逻辑毫无用处,因此诺顿声称我们应该对这种尝试感到绝望。然而,他的否定结果取决于对机会的某种具体化,包括将归纳支持视为一个函数的值,一个本身不受重新标记影响的值。在这里,我们定义了一个纯粹的比较无限彩票逻辑,其中没有原始机会,只有“最多可能”及其导数的关系。这种逻辑满足标签独立性和可加性的比较版本以及其他几个理想的属性,并且它在事件之间绘制了比诺顿更精细的区别。因此,它提供了比诺顿更好的关于在彩票组之间进行选择的建议,但它似乎对评估多元宇宙模型没有任何帮助。因此,诺顿逻辑的局限性并不完全是由于可加性的失败,也不是因为所有无限的、并无限的结果集都有 这种逻辑满足标签独立性和可加性的比较版本以及其他几个理想的属性,并且它在事件之间绘制了比诺顿更精细的区别。因此,它提供了比诺顿更好的关于在彩票组之间进行选择的建议,但它似乎对评估多元宇宙模型没有任何帮助。因此,诺顿逻辑的局限性并不完全是由于可加性的失败,也不是因为所有无限的、并无限的结果集都有 这种逻辑满足标签独立性和可加性的比较版本以及其他几个理想的属性,并且它在事件之间绘制了比诺顿更精细的区别。因此,它提供了比诺顿更好的关于在彩票组之间进行选择的建议,但它似乎对评估多元宇宙模型没有任何帮助。因此,诺顿逻辑的局限性并不完全是由于可加性的失败,也不是因为所有无限的、并无限的结果集都有 但它似乎对评估多元宇宙模型没有任何帮助。因此,诺顿逻辑的局限性并不完全是由于可加性的失败,也不是因为所有无限的、并无限的结果集都有 但它似乎对评估多元宇宙模型没有任何帮助。因此,诺顿逻辑的局限性并不完全是由于可加性的失败,也不是因为所有无限的、并无限的结果集都有同样的机会,但有一个更根本的问题:我们没有很好的方法来比较不相交的可数无限集。

更新日期:2020-05-24
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