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    Treating prior experience as lexically superior to testim... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The evidential standard required to establish that a miracle has occurred is higher than that required for other unusual events

    Treating prior experience as lexically superior to testimonial evidence is a dogmatic asymmetry incompatible with Bayesian norms of rational belief updating.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Bayesian rationality requires updating beliefs proportionally to evidence strength, not source type. Testimony and experience are both evidence.
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    • 2.Privileging prior experience assumes it's inherently more reliable, but testimony from experts often outperforms individual experience in accuracy.
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    • 3.Lexical prioritization of experience prevents rational incorporation of testimony that should shift credence given its evidential weight.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.Direct experience provides immediate sensory access to facts; testimony requires trusting intermediaries, introducing systematic vulnerabilities.
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    • 2.Prior experience calibrates one's ability to evaluate testimony reliability itself—uneducated priors make Bayesian updating worse, not better.
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    • 3.Some domains (mathematics, distant history) offer no direct experience; asymmetric weighting protects against testimony in domains where we're epistemically helpless.
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    Related

    Bayesian rationality requires updating beliefs proportionally to evidence streng...Direct experience provides immediate sensory access to facts; testimony requires...Lexical prioritization of experience prevents rational incorporation of testimon...Prior experience calibrates one's ability to evaluate testimony reliability itse...
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    Privileging prior experience assumes it's inherently more reliable, but testimon...Some domains (mathematics, distant history) offer no direct experience; asymmetr...The evidential standard required to establish that a miracle has occurred is hig...

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    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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