The Science of Statistics

Abstract

On the inside of the front cover of each issue of its Journal, the American Statistical Association declares that it is a scientific organization. In what sense is statistics scientific? There are several common usages of the word “science.” First, science is sometimes used as a synonym for systematized knowledge. Or, in more detail, a science is the systematized knowledge produced by the study of the structure of a class of concepts. A second usage is that science is explanation. Third and more narrowly, science is sometimes taken to mean the systemized knowledge of “nature,” of the “real world.” A fourth usage, due to Karl Pearson, is that any field of study which employs the scientific method of hypothesis, deduction and experiment is a science. A fifth usage is common in physics; Ruhla (1993) writes “prediction = science.”