Three-Toed Sloth

"Experimental Reasoning, Reliability, Objectivity, Rationality": The Names Men Give to Their Mistakes

Deborah Mayo's great book on Error and the Growth of Experimental Knowledge was published in 1996. In it, she lays out a way of thinking about statistics, and about learning from experience more generally, which is at once principled, powerful and useful. It helps make sense of what we already do, and suggests new ways in which we can improve our practices. I read it in 1998, and it roused me from my dogmatic slumbers about statistical inference. It's hard to imagine another path to where I am now if I hadn't read it. All of which is to say that I was very pleased to find the following in my inbox this morning:

First Symposium on
Philosophy, History, and Methodology of
E.R.R.O.R*
*Experimental Reasoning, Reliability, Objectivity & Rationality:
Induction, Statistics, Modelling
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
June 1-5, 2006

Check out the invited speakers and the call for papers.

Enigmas of Chance; Philosophy