Wow! eBook
Philosophy of Statistics
Author(s): Prasanta S. Bandyopadhyay (Editor), Malcolm R. Forster (Editor), Dov M. Gabbay (Series Editor), Paul Thagard (Series Editor), John Woods (Series Editor)
- Publisher: North Holland
- Publication Date: 29 May 2011
- Language: English
- Print length: 1260 pages
- ISBN-10: 0444518622
- ISBN-13: 9780444518620
Book Description
Statisticians and philosophers of science have many common interests but restricted communication with each other. This volume aims to remedy these shortcomings. It provides state-of-the-art research in the area of philosophy of statistics by encouraging numerous experts to communicate with one another without feeling “restricted by their disciplines or thinking “piecemeal in their treatment of issues.
A second goal of this book is to present work in the field without bias toward any particular statistical paradigm.
Broadly speaking, the essays in this Handbook are concerned with problems of induction, statistics and probability. For centuries, foundational problems like induction have been among philosophers’ favorite topics; recently, however, non-philosophers have increasingly taken a keen interest in these issues. This volume accordingly contains papers by both philosophers and non-philosophers, including scholars from nine academic disciplines.
- Provides a bridge between philosophy and current scientific findings
- Covers theory and applications
- Encourages multi-disciplinary dialogue
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
This volume provides a comprehensive, state-of-the-art overview of the philosophy of statistics. Theoretical as well as applied dimensions are addressed in detail, including:
- the problem of induction
- the definition and role of conditional probability
- foundational debates regarding the leading statistical paradigms (classical, Bayesian, likelihood, Akaikean)
- the likelihood principle
- recent advances in model selection criteria
- the issue about randomness and its mathematical foundations
- probabilistic and statistical paradoxes
- Inductive/statistical inference
- causal inference in observational studies
- issues in statistical learning theory
- the role of simplicity in statistics and automated inductive inference
- normal approximations
- the Stein phenomenon
- problems concerning data mining
- applications of statistics to climate change
- historical issues concerning the subjective-objective distinction and probability in Ancient India
The essays contained in this Handbook, written by scholars from nine disciplines (philosophy, statistics, mathematics, computer science, economics, ecology, electrical engineering, epidemiology, and geo-science), examine these complex issues in a lucid and intelligible style. Also included is a primer in elementary probability and statistics for readers who may lack the technical background to access many of the more complicated issues involved.
