Bayesians Versus Frequentists: A Philosophical Debate on Statistical Reasoning by Jordi VallverduMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book argues for the superiority of bayesianism (the author goes minuscule here) over frequentism in nearly two dozen articles categorized into a few sections with an index of persons. Sections include the origins of numerical and statistical thinking, related philosophical questions, and a contrasting of bayesian and frequentist approaches. The initial, historical section takes a broad view encompassing the cognitive abilities of animals, numerosity (“the ability to appreciate and understand numbers”), and the formation of a foundation for statistics. The middle section presents a brisk overview of statistics from the invention of dice in India to Nineteenth Century formalizations by Peirce, Venn, de Morgan, etc. These two sections prepare the ground for a final culmination in the work of Bayes and the role his approach has had and, by the author, should have. These sections are good, standalone treatments in aspects of the history of mathematics...
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