An Automatic Razor?

____________________________________________

“An Automatic Ockham's Razor for Bayesians?” Erkenntnis 84 (2019) 1361-1367

(published version) [preprint]

Abstract. It is sometimes claimed that the Bayesian framework automatically implements Ockham's razor---that conditionalizing on data consistent with both a simple theory and a complex theory more or less inevitably favours the simpler theory. It is shown here that the automatic razor doesn't in fact cut it for certain mundane curve-fitting problems.

_____________________________________________