JenniferRM comments on So You Think You're a Bayesian? The Natural Mode of Probabilistic Reasoning - Less Wrong

48 Post author: Matt_Simpson 14 July 2010 04:51PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (79)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: JanetK 15 July 2010 09:27:30AM 6 points [-]

Your idea that the subjects are not taking the question seriously is a good one.

I had a discussion with someone about a very similar real life 'Linda'. It was finally resolved by realizing that the other person didn't think of 'and' and 'or' as defined terms that always differed and was quite put out that I thought he should know that. To put it in 'Linda' terms: he know that Linda was a feminist and doubted that she was a teller. This being the case the 'and' should be thought of as an 'or' and b was more likely than a. Why would anyone think differently? It kind of blew my mind that I was being accused of being sloppy or illogical by using the fixed defined meaning for 'and' and 'or'. I have since that time noticed that people actually often have this vagueness about logical terms.

Comment author: JenniferRM 15 July 2010 07:47:04PM *  2 points [-]

I generally think of "and" and "or" in the strict senses, but, by the same token, I get really annoyed when I use the word "or" (which, in English, is ambiguous about whether it is meant in the exclusive or inclusive sense) and people say "yes" or "true".

English already has words like "both" to answer in that question, which tells you in one syllable that the "exclusive or" reading is false but the "inclusive or" reading is true. This is not a standard part of symbolic logic curriculum, and is simply helpful rather than a sign of having taken such a class and learned a technical jargon that borrowed the word "or" to strictly mean "inclusive or".

I'd never head of someone generously interpreting an "and" as an "or" (or vice versa) but it makes sense to me that it would be common and helpful in the absence of assumed exposure to a technical curriculum with truth tables and quantified predicate logic and such (at least when a friendly discussion was happening, instead of a debate).

Comment author: Sniffnoy 15 July 2010 08:18:11PM 1 point [-]

I generally think of "and" and "or" in the strict senses, but, by the same token, I get really annoyed when I use the word "or" (which, in English, is ambiguous about whether it is meant in the exclusive or inclusive sense) and people say "yes" or "true".

People actually do that when not trying to be annoying? That's surprising.

Comment author: SilasBarta 15 July 2010 08:29:30PM *  0 points [-]

Yeah, I would say "both" or "yes, it could be either" depending on what I meant. I also use "and/or" whenever I mean the inclusive or, though that's frowned on in formal writing.