I’m split on this one. I like it better without “pain of paradox,” but it seemed like a third of the book was devoted to pains and paradoxes arising from ignoring information.
There is nothing “subjective” about Bayesian probability.
Because a direct contradiction of this quote is also true (and also something that the Jaynes would probably agree with) it is perhaps not the best 15 words in his work. The problem is that all the meaning conveyed relies on the reader plugging in suitable meanings for ‘subjective’ so that it makes sense. The knowledge needed to construct an interpretation of the quote that is correct and insightful gets deducted from the information that is conveyed by the quote.
I do agree that this message and this source are worth quoting. If the excerpt badger quotes does come from Jaynes then it certainly deserves a place. Same message, less ambiguity.
Jayne’s Probability Theory:
There is nothing “subjective” about Bayesian probability.
EDIT: I like badger’s suggestion below better than this one.
I’d go with: Probability exists in your mind, not the world, but there still is an “objective” way to calculate it.
I like it. In the spirit of iterative improvement, how about this:
Probabilities are subjective, but the information they represent is not. Use all available information on pain of paradox.
I propose an iteration with “on pain of paradox” truncated.
I’m split on this one. I like it better without “pain of paradox,” but it seemed like a third of the book was devoted to pains and paradoxes arising from ignoring information.
Because a direct contradiction of this quote is also true (and also something that the Jaynes would probably agree with) it is perhaps not the best 15 words in his work. The problem is that all the meaning conveyed relies on the reader plugging in suitable meanings for ‘subjective’ so that it makes sense. The knowledge needed to construct an interpretation of the quote that is correct and insightful gets deducted from the information that is conveyed by the quote.
I do agree that this message and this source are worth quoting. If the excerpt badger quotes does come from Jaynes then it certainly deserves a place. Same message, less ambiguity.