Harris, AJL;
Corner, A;
Hahn, U;
(2013)
James is polite and punctual (and useless): A Bayesian formalisation of faint praise.
THINKING & REASONING
, 19
(3)
414 - 429.
10.1080/13546783.2013.801367.
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Abstract
“Damned by faint praise” is the phenomenon whereby weak positive information leads to a negative change in belief. This seemingly conflicts with normative Bayesian predictions, which prescribe that positive information should only exert a positive change in belief. We argue that the negative belief change is due to an inference from critical missing evidence; that is, an implicit argument from ignorance. Such an inference is readily incorporated within a version of Bayes’ theorem incorporating the concept of epistemic closure. This reformalisation provides a general theoretical framework for the phenomenon that clearly outlines those conditions under which it should be observed, and its conceptual relationship with other argumentation phenomena.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | James is polite and punctual (and useless): A Bayesian formalisation of faint praise |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/13546783.2013.801367 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2013.801367 |
| Additional information: | © 2013 The Author. Published by Taylor & Francis This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted. |
| Keywords: | Belief revision, Bayesian probability, Argumentation, Persuasion, Testimony, Pragmatics |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Experimental Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1419618 |
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