Archive for Royal Society
Bayes plaque
Posted in Books, pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Bayes theorem, Edinburgh, FRS, plaque, Royal Society, Scotland, Thomas Bayes, University of Edinburgh on November 22, 2019 by xi'anthe first Bayesian
Posted in Statistics with tags An Essay towards solving a Problem in the Doctrine of Chances, Bayes' notebooks, Bayesian foundations, David Hume, Richard Price, Royal Society, Statistical Science, Thomas Bayes on February 20, 2018 by xi'anIn the first issue of Statistical Science for this year (2018), Stephen Stiegler pursues the origins of Bayesianism as attributable to Richard Price, main author of Bayes’ Essay. (This incidentally relates to an earlier ‘Og piece on that notion!) Steve points out the considerable inputs of Price on this Essay, even though the mathematical advance is very likely to be entirely Bayes’. It may however well be Price who initiated Bayes’ reflections on the matter, towards producing a counter-argument to Hume’s “On Miracles”.
“Price’s caution in addressing the probabilities of hypotheses suggested by data is rare in early literature.”
A section of the paper is about Price’s approach data-determined hypotheses and to the fact that considering such hypotheses cannot easily fit within a Bayesian framework. As stated by Price, “it would be improbable as infinite to one”. Which is a nice way to address the infinite mass prior.
Roberts and Speed elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society
Posted in Books, Statistics, University life with tags Bill Bryson, Britain, FRS, Gareth Roberts, Royal Society, Terry Speed on May 4, 2013 by xi'anI just found out that Gareth Roberts and Terry Speed have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society (FRS). Congratulations to both for this prestigious recognition of their major contributions to Science! (Another Fellow elected this year is Bill Bryson, in recognition of his scientific popularisation books. Including one on the Royal Society I reviewed for CHANCE a few months ago.)
Price’s theorem?
Posted in Statistics with tags An Essay towards solving a Problem in the Doctrine of Chances, Martyn Hooper, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Richard Price, Royal Society, Significance, Thomas Bayes on March 16, 2013 by xi'anA very interesting article by Martyn Hooper in Significance Feb. 2013 issue I just received. (It is available on-line for free.) It raises the question as to how much exactly Price contributed to the famous Essay… Given the percentage of the Essay that can be attributed to Price with certainty (Bayes’ part stops at page 14 out of 32 pages), given the lack of the original manuscript by Bayes, given the delay between the composition of this original manuscript (1755?), its delivery to Price (1761?) and its publication in 1763, given the absence of any other document published by Bayes on the topic, I tend to concur with Martyn Hooper (and Sharon McGrayne) that Price contributed quite significantly to the 1763 paper. Of course, it would sound quite bizarre to start calling our approach to Statistics Pricean or Pricey (or even Priceless!) Statistics, but this may constitute one of the most striking examples of Stigler’s Law of Eponymy!