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Error Statistics and Learning From Error: Making a Virtue of Necessity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Deborah G. Mayo
Deborah G. Mayo*
Affiliation:
Virginia Tech
*
†Department of Philosophy, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061; mayod@vt.edu.
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Abstract

The error statistical account of testing uses statistical considerations, not to provide a measure of probability of hypotheses, but to model patterns of irregularity that are useful for controlling, distinguishing, and learning from errors. The aim of this paper is (1) to explain the main points of contrast between the error statistical and the subjective Bayesian approach and (2) to elucidate the key errors that underlie the central objection raised by Colin Howson at our PSA 96 Symposium.

Type
Symposium: Philosophy of Statistics and Epistemology of Experiment: Bayesian vs. Error Statistical Approaches
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 64 , Issue S4: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1996 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers Dec., 1997 , 1997 , pp. S195 - S212
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1997

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Footnotes

‡

I thank E. L. Lehmann for several important error statistical insights.

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