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It is often claimed that the fundamental laws of physics are deterministic and time-symmetric and that therefore our experience of the passage of time is an illusion. This paper will critically discuss these claims and show that they are…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-04-20 Barbara Drossel

The primary objective of this paper is to revisit and make a case for the merits of R.A. Fisher's objections to the decision-theoretic framing of frequentist inference. It is argued that this framing is congruent with the Bayesian but…

Methodology · Statistics 2016-08-02 Aris Spanos

The survival probability of a quantum system with a finite ground energy is known to decay subexponentially at large times. Here we show that, under the same assumption, the average value of any quantum observable, whenever well-defined,…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-12-07 Paolo Facchi , Davide Lonigro

Bayesian inference paradigms are regarded as powerful tools for solution of inverse problems. However, when applied to inverse problems in physical sciences, Bayesian formulations suffer from a number of inconsistencies that are often…

Methodology · Statistics 2024-11-21 Klaus Mosegaard

The ideas of aleatoric and epistemic uncertainty are widely used to reason about the probabilistic predictions of machine-learning models. We identify incoherence in existing discussions of these ideas and suggest this stems from the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-08-19 Freddie Bickford Smith , Jannik Kossen , Eleanor Trollope , Mark van der Wilk , Adam Foster , Tom Rainforth

By analyzing the relationships among chance, weight of evidence and degree of beliefwe show that the assertion "probability functions are special cases of belief functions" and the assertion "Dempster's rule can be used to combine belief…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2013-02-28 Pei Wang

In [12], Nilsson proposed the probabilistic logic in which the truth values of logical propositions are probability values between 0 and 1. It is applicable to any logical system for which the consistency of a finite set of propositions can…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2013-04-12 Su-shing Chen

Three recent arguments seek to show that the universal applicability of unitary quantum theory is inconsistent with the assumption that a well-conducted measurement always has a definite physical outcome. In this paper I restate and analyze…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2018-10-17 Richard A. Healey

In the propositional modal (and algebraic) treatment of two-variable first-order logic equality is modelled by a `diagonal' constant, interpreted in square products of universal frames as the identity (also known as the `diagonal')…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2015-12-29 Christopher Hampson , Stanislav Kikot , Agi Kurucz

The (re)introduction of $\Lambda$ into cosmology has spurred debates that touch on central questions in philosophy of science, as well as the foundations of general relativity and particle physics. We provide a systematic assessment of the…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2023-03-06 Adam Koberinski , Bridget Falck , Chris Smeenk

In this letter, we point to three widely accepted challenges that the quantum theory, quantum information, and quantum foundations communities are currently facing: indeterminism, the semantics of conditional probabilities, and the spooky…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2021-09-07 Ghislain Fourny

In his constructive and well-informed commentary, Andrei Khrennikov acknowledges a privileged status of classical probability theory with respect to statistical analysis. He also sees advantages offered by the Contextuality-by-Default…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2018-12-14 Ehtibar N. Dzhafarov , Maria Kon

The primary objective of this paper is to revisit Simpson's paradox using a statistical misspecification perspective. It is argued that the reversal of statistical associations is sometimes spurious, stemming from invalid probabilistic…

Methodology · Statistics 2016-05-16 Aris Spanos

Dantzig and Eaves claimed that fundamental duality theorems of linear programming were a trivial consequence of Fourier elimination. Another property of Fourier elimination is considered here, regarding the existence of implicit equalities…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2019-08-23 Jean-Louis Lassez

The likelihood principle makes strong claims about the nature of statistical evidence but is controversial. Its claims are undermined by the existence of several examples that are assumed to show that it allows, with unity probability,…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2015-08-25 Michael J. Lew

A central challenge in statistical inference is the presence of confounding variables that may distort observed associations between treatment and outcome. Conventional "causal" methods, grounded in assumptions such as ignorability, exclude…

Methodology · Statistics 2025-09-09 Ellis Scharfenaker , Duncan K. Foley

Shafer's theory of belief and the Bayesian theory of probability are two alternative and mutually inconsistent approaches toward modelling uncertainty in artificial intelligence. To help reduce the conflict between these two approaches,…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2013-03-08 Robert F. Bordley

Non-compact symmetries cannot be fully broken by randomness since non-compact groups have no invariant probability distributions. In particular, this makes trickier the "Copernican" random choice of the place of the observer in infinite…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2026-02-17 Leonid A. Levin

A crucial input into causal inference is the imputed counterfactual outcome. Imputation error can arise because of sampling uncertainty from estimating the prediction model using the untreated observations, or from out-of-sample information…

Econometrics · Economics 2024-05-20 Silvia Goncalves , Serena Ng

Jakob Bernoulli, working in the late 17th century, identified a gap in contemporary probability theory. He cautioned that it was inadequate to specify force of proof (probability of provability) for some kinds of uncertain arguments. After…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2018-09-10 Brian Shay , Patrick Brazil