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The Nature of Scientific Evidence – Statistical, Philosophical, and Empirical Considerations - Chicago Scholarship Online
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The Nature of Scientific Evidence: Statistical, Philosophical, and Empirical Considerations

Mark L. Taper and Subhash R. Lele

Abstract

An exploration of the statistical foundations of scientific inference, this book asks what constitutes scientific evidence and whether scientific evidence can be quantified statistically. The chapters explore the relationships among hypotheses, models, data, and inference on which scientific progress rests in an attempt to develop a new quantitative framework for evidence. Informed by interdisciplinary discussions among scientists, philosophers, and statisticians, the chapters propose a new “evidential” approach, which may be more in keeping with the scientific method. The book argues that all ... More

Keywords: statistical foundations, scientific inference, scientific evidence, hypotheses, models, data, scientific progress, evidential approach, scientific method, statistical philosophy

Bibliographic Information

Print publication date: 2004 Print ISBN-13: 9780226789552
Published to Chicago Scholarship Online: February 2013 DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226789583.001.0001

Authors

Affiliations are at time of print publication.

Mark L. Taper, editor

Subhash R. Lele, editor

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Contents

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Front Matter

Title Pages

Dedication

Foreword

Preface

Part 1 Scientific Process

Mark L. Taper and Subhash R. Lele

1 A Brief Tour of Statistical Concepts

Nicholas Lewin-Koh, Mark L. Taper, and Subhash R. Lele

2 Models of Scientific Inquiry and Statistical Practice: Implications for the Structure of Scientific Knowledge

Brian A. Maurer

3 Experiments, Observations, and Other Kinds of Evidence

Samuel M. Scheiner

Part 2 Logics of Evidence

V. P. Godambe

4 An Error-Statistical Philosophy of Evidence

Deborah G. Mayo

5 The Likelihood Paradigm for Statistical Evidence

Richard Royall

6 Why Likelihood?

Malcolm Forster and Elliott Sober

7 Evidence Functions and the Optimality of the Law of Likelihood

Subhash R. Lele

Part 3 Realities of Nature

Mark S. Boyce

8 Whole-Ecosystem Experiments: Replication and Arguing from Error

Jean A. Miller and Thomas M. Frost

9 Dynamical Models as Paths to Evidence in Ecology

Mark L. Taper and Subhash R. Lele

10 Constraints on Negative Relationships: Mathematical Causes and Ecological Consequences

James H. Brown, Edward J. Bedrick, S. K. Morgan Ernest, Jean-Luc E. Cartron, and Jeffrey F. Kelly

Part 4 Science, Opinion, and Evidence

Mark L. Taper and Subhash R. Lele

11 Statistics and the Scientific Method in Ecology

Brian Dennis

12 Taking the Prior Seriously: Bayesian Analysis without Subjective Probability

Daniel Goodman

13 Elicit Data, Not Prior: On Using Expert Opinion in Ecological Studies

Subhash R. Lele

Part 5 Models, Realities, and Evidence

Mark L. Taper and Subhash R. Lele

14 Statistical Distances as Loss Functions in Assessing Model Adequacy

Bruce G. Lindsay

15 Model Identification from Many Candidates

Mark L. Taper

Part 6 Conclusion

16 The Nature of Scientific Evidence: A Forward-Looking Synthesis

Mark L. Taper and Subhash R. Lele

End Matter

Contributors

Index