  The use of maximum entropy inference in reasoning with uncertain information
is commonly justified by an information-theoretic argument. This paper
discusses a possible objection to this information-theoretic justification and
shows how it can be met. I then compare maximum entropy inference with certain
other currently popular methods for uncertain reasoning. In making such a
comparison, one must distinguish between static and dynamic theories of degrees
of belief: a static theory concerns the consistency conditions for degrees of
belief at a given time; whereas a dynamic theory concerns how one's degrees of
belief should change in the light of new information. It is argued that maximum
entropy is a dynamic theory and that a complete theory of uncertain reasoning
can be gotten by combining maximum entropy inference with probability theory,
which is a static theory. This total theory, I argue, is much better grounded
than are other theories of uncertain reasoning.
