[extropy-chat] Random Thought Experiments (was Coin Flip Paradox)

[gts]

On Tue, 30 Jan 2007 23:05:12 -0500, The Avantguardian  
<avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Yes. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Boltzman's
> Equipartition Theorem may be thought of as the
> Principle of Indifference as applied to the internal
> energy of a classical system.

Yes, and in that example the Principle of Indifference is a powerful  
*heuristic device*. In general it has a lot of heuristic power in the  
physical sciences (one reason ET Jaynes was so fond of it). This does not  
however prove it to be a valid principle of *logic*.

You might ask why this distinction matters. It matters because certain  
interpretations of Kolmogorov's axioms of probability stand or fall on the  
question of whether the PI is a valid principle of logic.

-gts