The principle of indifference (also called principle of insufficient reason) is a rule for assigning epistemic probabilities. Suppose that there are n > 1 mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive possibilities. The principle of indifference states that if the n possibilities are indistinguishable except for their names, then each possibility should be assigned a probability equal to 1/n.
In Bayesian probability, this is the simplest non-informative prior. The principle of indifference is meaningless under the frequency interpretation of probability, in which probabilities are relative frequencies rather than degrees of belief in uncertain propositions, conditional upon a state of information.
Read more about Principle Of Indifference: Examples, Application To Continuous Variables, History of The Principle of Indifference
Famous quotes containing the words principle of, principle and/or indifference:
“Antagonistic cooperation is the principle of all markets and many marriages.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“A certain secret jealousy of the British Minister is always lurking in the breast of every American Senator, if he is truly democratic; for democracy, rightly understood, is the government of the people, by the people, for the benefit of Senators, and there is always a danger that the British Minister may not understand this political principle as he should.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“The sensitivity of men to small matters, and their indifference to great ones, indicates a strange inversion.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)