Bayesians Versus Frequentists

This book analyzes the origins of statistical thinking as well as its related philosophical questions, such as causality, determinism or chance. Bayesian and frequentist approaches are subjected to a historical, cognitive and epistemological analysis, making it possible to not only compare the two competing theories, but to also find a potential solution. The work pursues a naturalistic approach, proceeding from the existence of numerosity in natural environments to the existence of contemporary formulas and methodologies to heuristic pragmatism, a concept introduced in the book’s final section. This monograph will be of interest to philosophers and historians of science and students in related fields. Despite the mathematical nature of the topic, no statistical background is required, making the book a valuable read for anyone interested in the history of statistics and human cognition.

• 00A30, 01Axx, 62-03
• Bayesian
• causality
• determinism
• history of mathematics
• philosophy of mathematics
• statistical thinking

“This book argues for the superiority of bayesianism (the author prefers lower-case) over frequentism, collecting nearly two dozen articles organized into a few sections with an index of persons. … Anyone interested in the history of statistics, let alone the subject debate, and in how our choice of statistical foundation affects our view of the world will find this work entertaining in enlightening.” (Tom Schulte, MAA Reviews, maa.org, August, 2016)

• Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Spain

  Jordi Vallverdú

Jordi Vallverdú, Ph.D., M.Sci., B.Mus, B.Phil is a Tenure Professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. His research embraces the cognitive and epistemic aspects of contemporary scientific research, especially in the fields of emotional modelling, computer science and robotics. In 2011 he won a Japanese JSPS fellowship to pursue research on computational HRI interfaces at Kyoto University. He was a keynote speaker at ECAP09 (TUM, Munich, Germany), EBICC2012 (UNESP, Brazil) and SLACTIONS 2013 (Portugal). As an expert on emotions and cognition he founded and serves as an Editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Synthetic Emotions (IJSE). He is also a research member of GEHUCT and TECNOCOG.

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