Learning from experience and conditionalization

Abstract

Bayesianism can be characterized as the following twofold position: (i) rational credences obey the probability calculus; (ii) rational learning, i.e., the updating of credences, is regulated by some form of conditionalization. While the formal aspect of various forms of conditionalization has been explored in detail, the philosophical application to learning from experience is still deeply problematic. Some philosophers have proposed to revise the epistemology of perception; others have provided new formal accounts of conditionalization that are more in line with how we learn from perceptual experience. The current investigation argues that Bayesian epistemology is still incomplete; the epistemology of perception and the epistemology of rational reasoning have not been reconciled.

Triangulation, incommensurability, and conditionalization

“…We thank an anonymous referee for this point.15 For a recent discussion (and some useful references) of the type of experience that might lead to updating using Jeffrey's conditionalization seeBrossel (2023).16 Our rigidity condition does not demand that all the agents' conditional credence, given H, must not change; only the specific conditional credences mentioned. We thank an anonymous referee for bringing this to our attention.…”