TATISTICS AS CIENCE ONERGAN HANE AND POPPER作为和的作品.pdfVIP

Patrick H. Byrne: “Statistics as Science: Lonergan, McShane, and Popper” Journal of Macrodynamic Analysis 3 (2003): 55-75 http://www.mun.ca/jmda/vol3/byrne.pdf STATISTICS AS SCIENCE: LONERGAN, MCSHANE, AND POPPER PATRICK H. BYRNE On this occasion of honouring the achievement of Philip McShane, I would like to recall his earliest and, in my judgment, most important work, Randomness, Statistics and 1 Emergence . In particular, I will recall how that work situated Lonergan’s important breakthrough on statistical method in relation to the major currents of thought on the subject, many of which remain influential still today.2 From afar, the question of the scientific status of statistics seems beyond question. For better and worse, statistical analyses and tables of data suffuse almost every scientific publication (as well as quite a few that are non-scientific), but especially in the fields of health care, economics, sociology, and psychology. Readers of such publications often must wade through lengthy and tedious justifications of the statistical methods, assumptions, and protocols. Indeed, instruction in statistical methods and procedures are required of virtually all students of the social and natural sciences. Yet, if one moves in for closer inspection, the exact scientific status of statistical methods becomes blurry, despite their pervasive usage. Few scientists could give a coherent account of why they employ statistical methods – beyond very 1 Philip McShane, Randomness, Statistics and