Shared item
1 shares
A more formal rant
via Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science by (author unknown) on May 13, 2008
I've written up my rant more seriously here. Here's the new abstract:
Bayesian inference is one of the more controversial approaches to statistics. The fundamental objections to Bayesian methods are twofold: on one hand, Bayesian methods are presented as an automatic inference engine, and this raises suspicion in anyone with applied experience. The second objection to Bayes comes from the opposite direction and addresses the subjective strand of Bayesian inference. This article presents a series of objections to Bayesian inference, written in the voice of a hypothetical anti-Bayesian statistician. The article is intended to elicit elaborations and extensions of these and other arguments from non-Bayesians and responses from Bayesians who might have different perspectives on these issues.
And here's how the article concludes:
In the decades since this work and Box and Tiao’s and Berger’s definitive books on Bayesian inference and decision theory, the debates have shifted from theory toward practice. But many of the fundamental disputes remain and are worth airing on occasion, to see the extent to which modern developments in Bayesian and non-Bayesian methods alike can inform the discussion.
In answer to many of the earlier commenters: yes, I have replies for the criticisms. But I didn't want to put them here because I worried that they would inhibit the flow of discussion that I'd like to see come from this article. I will post my replies at some point (at which time I'm sure they'll be a disappointment, after all the hype).
TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)Shared by: