1.
Charles Sanders Peirce
–
Charles Sanders Peirce was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist who is sometimes known as the father of pragmatism. He was educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for 30 years, today he is appreciated largely for his contributions to logic, mathematics, philosophy, scientific methodology, and semiotics, and for his founding of pragmatism. An innovator in mathematics, statistics, philosophy, research methodology, and various sciences, Peirce considered himself, first and foremost and he made major contributions to logic, but logic for him encompassed much of that which is now called epistemology and philosophy of science. As early as 1886 he saw that logical operations could be carried out by electrical switching circuits, in 1934, the philosopher Paul Weiss called Peirce the most original and versatile of American philosophers and Americas greatest logician. Websters Biographical Dictionary said in 1943 that Peirce was now regarded as the most original thinker, keith Devlin similarly referred to Peirce as one of the greatest philosophers ever. Peirce was born at 3 Phillips Place in Cambridge, Massachusetts and he was the son of Sarah Hunt Mills and Benjamin Peirce, himself a professor of astronomy and mathematics at Harvard University and perhaps the first serious research mathematician in America. At age 12, Charles read his older brothers copy of Richard Whatelys Elements of Logic, so began his lifelong fascination with logic and reasoning. At Harvard, he began lifelong friendships with Francis Ellingwood Abbot, Chauncey Wright, one of his Harvard instructors, Charles William Eliot, formed an unfavorable opinion of Peirce. This opinion proved fateful, because Eliot, while President of Harvard 1869–1909—a period encompassing nearly all of Peirces working life—repeatedly vetoed Harvards employing Peirce in any capacity. Peirce suffered from his late teens onward from a condition then known as facial neuralgia. Its consequences may have led to the isolation which made his lifes later years so tragic. That employment exempted Peirce from having to part in the Civil War, it would have been very awkward for him to do so. At the Survey, he worked mainly in geodesy and gravimetry and he was elected a resident fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in January 1867. From 1869 to 1872, he was employed as an Assistant in Harvards astronomical observatory, doing important work on determining the brightness of stars, on April 20,1877 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Also in 1877, he proposed measuring the meter as so many wavelengths of light of a certain frequency, during the 1880s, Peirces indifference to bureaucratic detail waxed while his Survey works quality and timeliness waned. Peirce took years to write reports that he should have completed in months, meanwhile, he wrote entries, ultimately thousands during 1883–1909, on philosophy, logic, science, and other subjects for the encyclopedic Century Dictionary. In 1885, an investigation by the Allison Commission exonerated Peirce, in 1891, Peirce resigned from the Coast Survey at Superintendent Thomas Corwin Mendenhalls request. He never again held regular employment, in 1879, Peirce was appointed Lecturer in logic at Johns Hopkins University, which had strong departments in a number of areas that interested him, such as philosophy, psychology, and mathematics
2.
Oxford University Press
–
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world, and the second oldest after Cambridge University Press. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the known as the delegates of the press. They are headed by the secretary to the delegates, who serves as OUPs chief executive, Oxford University has used a similar system to oversee OUP since the 17th century. The university became involved in the print trade around 1480, and grew into a printer of Bibles, prayer books. OUP took on the project became the Oxford English Dictionary in the late 19th century. Moves into international markets led to OUP opening its own offices outside the United Kingdom, by contracting out its printing and binding operations, the modern OUP publishes some 6,000 new titles around the world each year. OUP was first exempted from United States corporation tax in 1972, as a department of a charity, OUP is exempt from income tax and corporate tax in most countries, but may pay sales and other commercial taxes on its products. The OUP today transfers 30% of its surplus to the rest of the university. OUP is the largest university press in the world by the number of publications, publishing more than 6,000 new books every year, the Oxford University Press Museum is located on Great Clarendon Street, Oxford. Visits must be booked in advance and are led by a member of the archive staff, displays include a 19th-century printing press, the OUP buildings, and the printing and history of the Oxford Almanack, Alice in Wonderland and the Oxford English Dictionary. The first printer associated with Oxford University was Theoderic Rood, the first book printed in Oxford, in 1478, an edition of Rufinuss Expositio in symbolum apostolorum, was printed by another, anonymous, printer. Famously, this was mis-dated in Roman numerals as 1468, thus apparently pre-dating Caxton, roods printing included John Ankywylls Compendium totius grammaticae, which set new standards for teaching of Latin grammar. After Rood, printing connected with the university remained sporadic for over half a century, the chancellor, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, pleaded Oxfords case. Some royal assent was obtained, since the printer Joseph Barnes began work, Oxfords chancellor, Archbishop William Laud, consolidated the legal status of the universitys printing in the 1630s. Laud envisaged a unified press of world repute, Oxford would establish it on university property, govern its operations, employ its staff, determine its printed work, and benefit from its proceeds. To that end, he petitioned Charles I for rights that would enable Oxford to compete with the Stationers Company and the Kings Printer and these were brought together in Oxfords Great Charter in 1636, which gave the university the right to print all manner of books. Laud also obtained the privilege from the Crown of printing the King James or Authorized Version of Scripture at Oxford and this privilege created substantial returns in the next 250 years, although initially it was held in abeyance. The Stationers Company was deeply alarmed by the threat to its trade, under this, the Stationers paid an annual rent for the university not to exercise its full printing rights – money Oxford used to purchase new printing equipment for smaller purposes
3.
Cambridge University Press
–
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the worlds oldest publishing house and it also holds letters patent as the Queens Printer. The Presss mission is To further the Universitys mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, Cambridge University Press is a department of the University of Cambridge and is both an academic and educational publisher. With a global presence, publishing hubs, and offices in more than 40 countries. Its publishing includes journals, monographs, reference works, textbooks. Cambridge University Press is an enterprise that transfers part of its annual surplus back to the university. Cambridge University Press is both the oldest publishing house in the world and the oldest university press and it originated from Letters Patent granted to the University of Cambridge by Henry VIII in 1534, and has been producing books continuously since the first University Press book was printed. Cambridge is one of the two privileged presses, authors published by Cambridge have included John Milton, William Harvey, Isaac Newton, Bertrand Russell, and Stephen Hawking. In 1591, Thomass successor, John Legate, printed the first Cambridge Bible, the London Stationers objected strenuously, claiming that they had the monopoly on Bible printing. The universitys response was to point out the provision in its charter to print all manner of books. In July 1697 the Duke of Somerset made a loan of £200 to the university towards the house and presse and James Halman, Registrary of the University. It was in Bentleys time, in 1698, that a body of scholars was appointed to be responsible to the university for the Presss affairs. The Press Syndicates publishing committee still meets regularly, and its role still includes the review, John Baskerville became University Printer in the mid-eighteenth century. Baskervilles concern was the production of the finest possible books using his own type-design, a technological breakthrough was badly needed, and it came when Lord Stanhope perfected the making of stereotype plates. This involved making a mould of the surface of a page of type. The Press was the first to use this technique, and in 1805 produced the technically successful, under the stewardship of C. J. Clay, who was University Printer from 1854 to 1882, the Press increased the size and scale of its academic and educational publishing operation. An important factor in this increase was the inauguration of its list of schoolbooks, during Clays administration, the Press also undertook a sizable co-publishing venture with Oxford, the Revised Version of the Bible, which was begun in 1870 and completed in 1885. It was Wright who devised the plan for one of the most distinctive Cambridge contributions to publishing—the Cambridge Histories, the Cambridge Modern History was published between 1902 and 1912
4.
Statistics
–
Statistics is a branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, analysis, interpretation, presentation, and organization of data. In applying statistics to, e. g. a scientific, industrial, or social problem, populations can be diverse topics such as all people living in a country or every atom composing a crystal. Statistics deals with all aspects of data including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys, statistician Sir Arthur Lyon Bowley defines statistics as Numerical statements of facts in any department of inquiry placed in relation to each other. When census data cannot be collected, statisticians collect data by developing specific experiment designs, representative sampling assures that inferences and conclusions can safely extend from the sample to the population as a whole. In contrast, an observational study does not involve experimental manipulation, inferences on mathematical statistics are made under the framework of probability theory, which deals with the analysis of random phenomena. A standard statistical procedure involves the test of the relationship between two data sets, or a data set and a synthetic data drawn from idealized model. A hypothesis is proposed for the relationship between the two data sets, and this is compared as an alternative to an idealized null hypothesis of no relationship between two data sets. Rejecting or disproving the hypothesis is done using statistical tests that quantify the sense in which the null can be proven false. Working from a hypothesis, two basic forms of error are recognized, Type I errors and Type II errors. Multiple problems have come to be associated with this framework, ranging from obtaining a sufficient sample size to specifying an adequate null hypothesis, measurement processes that generate statistical data are also subject to error. Many of these errors are classified as random or systematic, the presence of missing data or censoring may result in biased estimates and specific techniques have been developed to address these problems. Statistics continues to be an area of research, for example on the problem of how to analyze Big data. Statistics is a body of science that pertains to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation. Some consider statistics to be a mathematical science rather than a branch of mathematics. While many scientific investigations make use of data, statistics is concerned with the use of data in the context of uncertainty, mathematical techniques used for this include mathematical analysis, linear algebra, stochastic analysis, differential equations, and measure-theoretic probability theory. In applying statistics to a problem, it is practice to start with a population or process to be studied. Populations can be diverse topics such as all living in a country or every atom composing a crystal. Ideally, statisticians compile data about the entire population and this may be organized by governmental statistical institutes
5.
Design of experiments
–
The design of experiments is the design of any task that aims to describe or explain the variation of information under conditions that are hypothesized to reflect the variation. In its simplest form, an experiment aims at predicting the outcome by introducing a change of the preconditions, the change in the predictor is generally hypothesized to result in a change in the second variable, hence called the outcome variable. Main concerns in design include the establishment of validity, reliability. Related concerns include achieving appropriate levels of power and sensitivity. Correctly designed experiments advance knowledge in the natural and social sciences, other applications include marketing and policy making. In 1747, while serving as surgeon on HMS Salisbury, James Lind carried out a clinical trial to compare remedies for scurvy. This systematic clinical trial constitutes a type of DOE, Lind selected 12 men from the ship, all suffering from scurvy. Lind limited his subjects to men who were as similar as I could have them and he divided them into six pairs, giving each pair different supplements to their basic diet for two weeks. The treatments were all remedies that had proposed, A quart of cider every day. Twenty five gutts of vitriol three times a day upon an empty stomach, one half-pint of seawater every day. A mixture of garlic, mustard, and horseradish in a lump the size of a nutmeg, two spoonfuls of vinegar three times a day. Two oranges and one every day. The citrus treatment stopped after six days when they ran out of fruit, apart from that, only group one showed some effect of its treatment. The remainder of the crew served as a control. Charles S. Peirce randomly assigned volunteers to a blinded, repeated-measures design to evaluate their ability to discriminate weights, peirces experiment inspired other researchers in psychology and education, which developed a research tradition of randomized experiments in laboratories and specialized textbooks in the 1800s. Charles S. Peirce also contributed the first English-language publication on a design for regression models in 1876. A pioneering optimal design for regression was suggested by Gergonne in 1815. In 1918 Kirstine Smith published optimal designs for polynomials of degree six, herman Chernoff wrote an overview of optimal sequential designs, while adaptive designs have been surveyed by S. Zacks
6.
Joseph Jastrow
–
Joseph Jastrow was a Polish-born American psychologist, noted for inventions in experimental psychology, design of experiments, and psychophysics. He also worked on the phenomena of optical illusions, and a number of optical illusions were either discovered or popularized in his work. Jastrow believed that everyone had their own, often incorrect, preconceptions about psychology, one of his goals was to use the scientific method to identify truth from error, and educate the layperson, which he did through speaking tours, popular print media, and radio. Jastrow was born in Warsaw, Poland, during his doctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University, Jastrow worked with C. S. Peirce on experiments in psychophysics that introduced randomization and blinding for a repeated measures design. From 1888 until his retirement in 1927, Jastrow was a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and he was a lecturer at the New School of Social Research from 1927 to 1933. Jastrow was head of the section of the Worlds Columbian Exposition in 1893. He was one of the members of the American Psychological Association. Jastrow was noted for his outreach in popular media, exposing the public to research in psychology. He gave public lectures, and was published in magazines, including Popular Science, Cosmopolitan. He also wrote Keeping Mentally Fit, a column that appeared in 150 newspapers. Jastrow suffered from bouts of depression throughout his life and his wife was Rachel Szold, a sister of Henrietta Szold. Jastrow was one of the members of the American Society for Psychical Research for study of the mesmeric, psychical. The early members of the society were skeptical of paranormal phenomena, Jastrow took an approach to psychical phenomena. A class of problems from their natural habitat, by 1890 he had resigned from the society, and he became an outspoken critic of parapsychology. Psychical researchers were rarely trained psychologists, and Jastrow thought their research lacked credibility, given the lack of evidence of psychical phenomena, he believed psychologists should not prioritize disproving claimed psychical phenomenon. In his book The Psychology of Conviction he included a chapter exposing what he called Eusapia Palladinos tricks. Jastrow was a figure in the field of anomalistic psychology. His book Fact and Fable in Psychology debunked claims of occultism including Spiritualism, Theosophy and he approached the occult in a scientific manner
7.
Probability theory
–
Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability, the analysis of random phenomena. It is not possible to predict precisely results of random events, two representative mathematical results describing such patterns are the law of large numbers and the central limit theorem. As a mathematical foundation for statistics, probability theory is essential to human activities that involve quantitative analysis of large sets of data. Methods of probability theory also apply to descriptions of complex systems given only partial knowledge of their state, a great discovery of twentieth century physics was the probabilistic nature of physical phenomena at atomic scales, described in quantum mechanics. Christiaan Huygens published a book on the subject in 1657 and in the 19th century, initially, probability theory mainly considered discrete events, and its methods were mainly combinatorial. Eventually, analytical considerations compelled the incorporation of continuous variables into the theory and this culminated in modern probability theory, on foundations laid by Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov. Kolmogorov combined the notion of space, introduced by Richard von Mises. This became the mostly undisputed axiomatic basis for modern probability theory, most introductions to probability theory treat discrete probability distributions and continuous probability distributions separately. The more mathematically advanced measure theory-based treatment of probability covers the discrete, continuous, consider an experiment that can produce a number of outcomes. The set of all outcomes is called the space of the experiment. The power set of the space is formed by considering all different collections of possible results. For example, rolling an honest die produces one of six possible results, one collection of possible results corresponds to getting an odd number. Thus, the subset is an element of the set of the sample space of die rolls. In this case, is the event that the die falls on some odd number, If the results that actually occur fall in a given event, that event is said to have occurred. Probability is a way of assigning every event a value between zero and one, with the requirement that the event made up of all possible results be assigned a value of one, the probability that any one of the events, or will occur is 5/6. This is the same as saying that the probability of event is 5/6 and this event encompasses the possibility of any number except five being rolled. The mutually exclusive event has a probability of 1/6, and the event has a probability of 1, discrete probability theory deals with events that occur in countable sample spaces. Modern definition, The modern definition starts with a finite or countable set called the sample space, which relates to the set of all possible outcomes in classical sense, denoted by Ω
8.
John Wiley & Sons
–
Founded in 1807, Wiley is also known for publishing For Dummies. As of 2015, the company had 4,900 employees, Wiley was established in 1807 when Charles Wiley opened a print shop in Manhattan. Wiley later shifted its focus to scientific, technical, and engineering subject areas, Charles Wileys son John took over the business when his father died in 1826. The firm was successively named Wiley, Lane & Co. then Wiley & Putnam, the company acquired its present name in 1876, when Johns second son William H. Wiley joined his brother Charles in the business. Through the 20th century, the company expanded its activities, the sciences. Since the establishment of the Nobel Prize in 1901, Wiley and its companies have published the works of more than 450 Nobel Laureates. Wiley in December 2010 opened an office in Dubai, to build on its business in the Middle East more effectively, the company has had an office in Beijing, China, since 2001, and China is now its sixth-largest market for STEM content. Wiley established publishing operations in India in 2006, and has established a presence in North Africa through sales contracts with academic institutions in Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. On April 16,2012, the announced the establishment of Wiley Brasil Editora LTDA in São Paulo, Brazil. Wileys scientific, technical, and medical business was expanded by the acquisition of Blackwell Publishing in February 2007. Through a backfile initiative completed in 2007,8.2 million pages of content have been made available online. Other major journals published include Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Materials, Hepatology, International Finance, launched commercially in 1999, Wiley InterScience provided online access to Wiley journals, major reference works, and books, including backfile content. Journals previously from Blackwell Publishing were available online from Blackwell Synergy until they were integrated into Wiley InterScience on June 30,2008, in December 2007, Wiley also began distributing its technical titles through the Safari Books Online e-reference service. On February 17,2012, Wiley announced the acquisition of Inscape Holdings Inc. which provides DISC assessments and training for interpersonal business skills. On August 13,2012, Wiley announced it entered into an agreement to sell all of its travel assets, including all of its interests in the Frommers brand. On October 2,2012, Wiley announced it would acquire Deltak edu, LLC, Deltak is expected to contribute solid growth to both Wileys Global Education business and Wiley overall. Seventh-generation members Jesse and Nate Wiley work in the companys Professional/Trade and Scientific, Technical, Medical, and Scholarly businesses, respectively. Wiley has been owned since 1962, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 1995, its stock is traded under the symbols NYSE, JW. A and NYSE
9.
Decision theory
–
Decision theory is the study of the reasoning underlying an agents choices. Decision theory is a topic, studied by economists, statisticians, psychologists, political and social scientists. Empirical applications of this theory are usually done with the help of statistical and econometric methods, especially via the so-called choice models. Estimation of such models is usually done via parametric, semi-parametric and non-parametric maximum likelihood methods, the practical application of this prescriptive approach is called decision analysis, and is aimed at finding tools, methodologies and software to help people make better decisions. In contrast, positive or descriptive decision theory is concerned with describing observed behaviors under the assumption that the agents are behaving under some consistent rules. The prescriptions or predictions about behaviour that positive decision theory produces allow for further tests of the kind of decision-making that occurs in practice, there is a thriving dialogue with experimental economics, which uses laboratory and field experiments to evaluate and inform theory. The area of choice under uncertainty represents the heart of decision theory and he gives an example in which a Dutch merchant is trying to decide whether to insure a cargo being sent from Amsterdam to St Petersburg in winter. In his solution, he defines a utility function and computes expected utility rather than expected financial value, the phrase decision theory itself was used in 1950 by E. L. Lehmann. At this time, von Neumann and Morgenstern theory of expected utility proved that expected utility maximization followed from basic postulates about rational behavior, the work of Maurice Allais and Daniel Ellsberg showed that human behavior has systematic and sometimes important departures from expected-utility maximization. The prospect theory of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky renewed the study of economic behavior with less emphasis on rationality presuppositions. Pascals Wager is an example of a choice under uncertainty. Intertemporal choice is concerned with the kind of choice where different actions lead to outcomes that are realised at different points in time, what is the optimal thing to do. The answer depends partly on factors such as the rates of interest and inflation, the persons life expectancy. Some decisions are difficult because of the need to take into account how people in the situation will respond to the decision that is taken. The analysis of such decisions is more often treated under the label of game theory, rather than decision theory. From the standpoint of game theory most of the treated in decision theory are one-player games. Other areas of decision theory are concerned with decisions that are difficult simply because of their complexity, one example is the model of economic growth and resource usage developed by the Club of Rome to help politicians make real-life decisions in complex situations. Decisions are also affected by whether options are framed together or separately, one example of common and incorrect thought process is the gamblers fallacy, or believing that a random event is affected by previous random events
10.
C. R. Rao
–
Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, FRS known as C R Rao is an Indian-born, naturalized American, mathematician and statistician. He is currently professor emeritus at Penn State University and Research Professor at the University at Buffalo, Rao has been honoured by numerous colloquia, honorary degrees, and festschrifts and was awarded the US National Medal of Science in 2002. The Times of India listed Rao as one of the top 10 Indian scientists of all time, Rao is also a Senior Policy and Statistics advisor for the Indian Heart Association non-profit focused on raising South Asian cardiovascular disease awareness. C. R. Rao was born in Hadagali, Bellary, Karnataka and he received an M. Sc. in mathematics from Andhra University and an M. A. in statistics from Calcutta University in 1943. He was among the first few people in the world to hold a degree in Statistics. Among his best-known discoveries are the Cramér–Rao bound and the Rao–Blackwell theorem both related to the quality of estimators, other areas he worked in include multivariate analysis, estimation theory, and differential geometry. His other contributions include the Fisher–Rao Theorem, Rao distance, and he is the author of 14 books and has published over 400 journal publications. Rao has received 38 honorary doctoral degrees from universities in 19 countries around the world and numerous awards and medals for his contributions to statistics and he is a member of eight National Academies in India, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Italy. Rao was awarded the United States National Medal of Science, that nations highest award for achievement in fields of scientific research. The latest addition to his collection of awards is the India Science Award for 2010 and he has been the President of the International Statistical Institute, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and the International Biometric Society. The Journal of Quantitative Economics published an issue in Raos honour in 1991. Dr Rao is a distinguished scientist and a highly eminent statistician of our time. He is a teacher and has guided the research work of numerous students in all areas of statistics. His early work had influenced the course of statistical research during the last four decades. One of the purposes of special issue is to recognize Dr Raos own contributions to econometrics. Bush, on June 12,2002, honoured him with the National Medal of Science, also honorary doctorates from a number of universities and institutes around the world. The Pennsylvania State University has established C. R, the road from IIIT Hyderabad passing along Central University of Hyderabad crossroads to Alind Factory, Lingampally is named as Prof. C. R. Rao Road. Testing Point Null Hypothesis of a Normal Mean and the Truth, Data Mining Using Neural Networks, A Guide for Statisticians
11.
Yadolah Dodge
–
Yadolah Dodge is an Iranian and Swiss statistician. His major contributions are in the theory of research, design of experiments. He spent his years in Abadan, Iran. He went then to the Gundeshapur or Jundi Shapour University and obtained his Post Licentiate in Engineering in Agriculture in 1966 with distinction and he got his PhD at the Oregon State University in 1974. In the 1980s he became professor of statistics at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland and he is author of more than 60 papers and 25 books, many of which have appeared in multiple editions. Arthanari, T. S. and Y Dodge, Y, mathematical Programming in Statistics, Wiley,1993. ISBN 0-471-59212-9 Birkes, D. and Dodge, Y, alternative Methods of Regression, Wiley,1993, ISBN 0-471-56881-3 Dodge, Y. Analysis of Experiments with Missing Data, John Wiley & Sons,1985, the Oxford Dictionary of Statistical Terms, Oxford University Press, Oxford,2003. ISBN 0-19-850994-4 Dodge, Y. and Rousson, V. Analyse de regression appliquée, ISBN 0-19-850994-4 Dodge, Y. and Melfi, G. Premiers pas en simulation, Springer, Paris,2008
12.
Ian Hacking
–
Ian MacDougall Hacking, born February 18,1936, is a Canadian philosopher specializing in the philosophy of science. Hacking also earned his PhD at Cambridge, under the direction of Casimir Lewy and he started his teaching career as an instructor at Princeton University in 1960 but, after just one year, moved to the University of Virginia as an assistant professor. After working as a fellow at Cambridge from 1962 to 1964, he taught at his alma mater, UBC, first as an assistant professor. He became a lecturer at Cambridge in 1969 before shifting to Stanford University in 1974, after teaching for several years at Stanford, he spent a year at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Bielefeld, Germany, from 1982 to 1983. Hacking was promoted to Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto in 1983 and University Professor, from 2000 to 2006, he held the Chair of Philosophy and History of Scientific Concepts at the Collège de France. Hacking is the first Anglophone to be elected to a permanent chair in the Collèges history, after retiring from the Collège de France, Hacking was a Professor of Philosophy at UC Santa Cruz, from 2008 to 2010. He concluded his career in 2011 as a visiting professor at the University of Cape Town and currently spends his days tending to his inner-city garden in Toronto with his wife. Influenced by debates involving Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos, Paul Feyerabend and others, the fourth edition of Feyerabends 1975 book Against Method, and the 50th anniversary edition of Kuhns The Structure of Scientific Revolutions include an Introduction by Hacking. He is sometimes described as a member of the Stanford School in philosophy of science, Hacking himself still identifies as a Cambridge analytic philosopher. Hacking has been a proponent of a realism about science called entity realism. This form of realism encourages a realistic stance towards answers to the scientific unknowns hypothesized by mature sciences, Hacking has also been influential in directing attention to the experimental and even engineering practices of science, and their relative autonomy from theory. Because of this, Hacking moved philosophical thinking a step further than the initial historical, after 1990, Hacking shifted his focus somewhat from the natural sciences to the human sciences, partly under the influence of the work of Michel Foucault. Foucault was an influence as early as 1975 when Hacking wrote Why Does Language Matter to Philosophy. as history, the idea of a sharp break has been criticized, but competing frequentist and subjective interpretations of probability still remain today. In Mad Travelers Hacking provided an account of the effects of a medical condition known as fugue in the late 1890s. Fugue, also known as mad travel, is a type of insanity in which European men would walk in a trance for hundreds of miles without knowledge of their identities. In 2002, Hacking was awarded the first Killam Prize for the Humanities and he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2004. Hacking was appointed visiting professor at University of California, Santa Cruz for the Winters of 2008 and 2009. On August 25,2009, Hacking was named winner of the Holberg International Memorial Prize, Hacking was chosen for his work on how statistics and the theory of probability have shaped society
Media related to Statistical theory at Wikimedia Commons
