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Many statisticians adopt an eclectic view of the debate
between proponents of the frequency interpretation of
probability and proponents of personal probability. These eclectics say in essence, "if it walks like a duck...". They are willing
to consider any phenomena which obey the axioms of probability
theory as a reasonable interpretation. Sometimes they will use methods associated with frequentists and at other times, they
use Bayesian methods.
Some philosophers of probability support eclectic probability as a
principled, rather than pragmatic, view. They argue that different interpretations of probability are independent of one another,
applying in different contexts. For example, one might accept a frequency interpretation of probability for repeatable
experiments, a logical interpretation of probability for a single-case event with highly specific prior information, and a
personal interpretation of probability for dealing with epistemic uncertainty, all without committing an inconsistency.
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