Absolutely Zero Evidence

Veronica J. Vieland

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arXiv · 1805.11516

Absolutely Zero Evidence

Veronica J. Vieland

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Abstract

Statistical analysis is often used to evaluate the evidence for or against scientific hypotheses, and various statistics (e.g., p-values, likelihood ratios, Bayes factors) are interpreted as measures of evidence strength. Here I consider evidence measurement from the point of view of representational measurement theory, and argue that familiar evidence statistics do not conform to any legitimate measurement scale type. I then consider the notion of an absolute scale for evidence measurement, in a sense to be defined, focusing particularly on the notion of absolute 0 evidence, which turns out to be something other than what one might have expected.

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Veronica J. Vieland. 2018-05-29. Absolutely Zero Evidence. https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.11516

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