Article ID: CBB001212110

Laplace---A Pioneer of Statistical Inference (2012)

unapi

Kuusela, Vesa (Author)


Journal Electronique d'Histoire des Probabilités et de la Statistique
Volume: 8
Pages: 1--24


Publication Date: 2012
Edition Details: Part of a special section on Laplace.
Language: English

It is generally held that R.A. Fisher, Jerzy Neyman and Egon Pearson laid the foundations of statistical inference in the 1920s and 1930s. Recent research concerning the history of statistical ideas has discovered that already at the end of the 18th century Laplace sketched a method, called the principle of inverse probability, which involved characteristics features of statistical inference. Laplace's estimation of the size of population in France, applying inverse probability principle, is the first scientifically ambitious partial investigation, or sample survey. Laplace's investigation embraced many of the phases that modern sample surveys have. The inverse probability principle and his later contributions, such as the Central Limit Theorem, eventually laid foundations for the later development of statistical inference. Laplacian paradigm was the dominant model in statistical science up to the 1920s but since then it has fallen into oblivion -- apparently, because it has been regarded as `Bayesian'. Recent research has shown that Laplace's and Fisher's ideas actually were close to each other even though they were based on different inference model.

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Article Mazliak, Laurent (2012) Introduction. Journal Electronique d'Histoire des Probabilités et de la Statistique (p. 1). unapi

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Authors & Contributors
Hahn, Roger
Boumans, Marcel
Busch, Lawrence
Emmott, James
Gelfert, Axel
Giocoli, Nicola
Journals
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
American Journal of Physics
Archive for History of Exact Sciences
Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
History of the Human Sciences
Publishers
University of Chicago
Brepols
Columbia University Press
Pickering & Chatto
Routledge
Concepts
Methodology of science; scientific method
Statistics
Philosophy of science
Inference
Correspondence and corresponding
Social sciences
People
Laplace, Pierre Simon
Boscovich, Ruggiero Giuseppe
Darwin, Charles Robert
Duhem, Pierre
Humboldt, Alexander von
Kinsey, Alfred C.
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
20th century
20th century, late
Modern
Places
Great Britain
France
Paris (France)
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