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Yeah, I don't agree. How does one go about assessing the validity of any given prior a priori? All priors are based on some sort of logical reasoning based on p
by patientplatypus 7y ago
Yeah, I don't agree. How does one go about assessing the validity of any given prior a priori? All priors are based on some sort of logical reasoning based on past experience, but much of the time when investigating something novel there's no guarantee that past experience is a good predictor. Often we don't even know to what degree we can or cannot rely on past experience.
I just don't buy that there's something magically more "mathy" about just conjuring assumptions you want to test.
- jbay808 7y agoIf you follow the derivation of frequentist formulas, you'll find they always start from some kind of assumption, such as a uniform prior. You can't escape having a prior. The only way to avoid having a prior is by pulling a formula from a textbook and applying it without looking at its derivation.