From evidence to understanding: a commentary on Fisher (1922) 'On the mathematical foundations of theoretical statistics'
File(s)
Published version
Accepted version
Author(s)
Hand, DJ
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The nature of statistics has changed over time. It
was originally concerned with descriptive ‘matters
of state’—with summarizing population numbers,
economic strength and social conditions. But during
the course of the twentieth century its aim broadened
to include inference—how to use data to shed light on
underlying mechanisms, about what might happen in
the future, about what would happen if certain actions
were taken. Central to this development was Ronald
Fisher. Over the course of his life he was responsible
for many of the major conceptual advances in
statistics. This is particularly illustrated by his 1922
paper, in which he introduced many of the concepts
which remain fundamental to our understanding of
how to extract meaning from data, right to the present
day. It is no exaggeration to say that Fisher’s work, as
illustrated by the ideas he described and developed
in this paper, underlies all modern science, and
much more besides. This commentary was written
to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
was originally concerned with descriptive ‘matters
of state’—with summarizing population numbers,
economic strength and social conditions. But during
the course of the twentieth century its aim broadened
to include inference—how to use data to shed light on
underlying mechanisms, about what might happen in
the future, about what would happen if certain actions
were taken. Central to this development was Ronald
Fisher. Over the course of his life he was responsible
for many of the major conceptual advances in
statistics. This is particularly illustrated by his 1922
paper, in which he introduced many of the concepts
which remain fundamental to our understanding of
how to extract meaning from data, right to the present
day. It is no exaggeration to say that Fisher’s work, as
illustrated by the ideas he described and developed
in this paper, underlies all modern science, and
much more besides. This commentary was written
to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
Date Issued
2015-04-13
Date Acceptance
2015-03-06
Citation
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY A-MATHEMATICAL PHYSICAL AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES, 2015, 373 (2039)
ISSN
1364-503X
Publisher
ROYAL SOC
Journal / Book Title
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY A-MATHEMATICAL PHYSICAL AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES
Volume
373
Issue
2039
Copyright Statement
© 2015 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of theCreative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
License URL
Subjects
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
inference
inverse probability
parameter
statistic
likelihood
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
20140252