Likelihood

by A. W. F. Edwards

Overview

This new and expanded edition of A. W. F. Edwards' classic volume on scientific inference presents his most important published articles on the subject. Edwards argues that the appropriate axiomatic basis for inductive inference is not that of probability, with its addition axiom, but that of likelihood, the concept introduced by Fisher as a measure of relative support among different hypotheses. Starting from the simplest considerations and assuming no more than a basic acquaintancewith probability theory, the author sets out to reconstruct a consistent theory of statistical inference in science. Using the likelihood approach, he explores estimation, tests of significance, randomization, experimental design, and other statistical topics. Likelihood is important reading for students and professionals in biology, mathematical sciences, and philosophy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801844430
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	10/01/1992
Series:	Cambridge Science Classics Series
Edition description:	expanded edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

A. W. F. Edwards is, like John Venn before him, a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He is the author of Likelihood and Pascal's Arithmetical Triangle, both available from Johns Hopkins.

Table of Contents

Preface
Preface to the 1972 edition
Prologue on probability
Chapter 1. The Framework of Inference
Chapter 2. The Concept of Likelihood
Chapter 3. Support
Chapter 4. Bayes' Theorem and inverse probability
Chapter 5. Maximum Support: The Method of Maximum Likelihood
Chapter 6. The Method of Support for Several Parameters
Chapter 7. Expected information and the distribution of evaluates
Chapter 8. Application in anomalous cases
Chapter 9. Support Tests
Chapter 10. Miscellaneous topics
Epilogue
Appendix 1. A problem in the doctrine of chances
Appendix 2. The history of likelihood
Appendix 3. Fiducial distributions
Appendix 4. The likelihood treatment of linear regression
Appendix 5. R.A. Fisher's work on statistical inference
Notes
References
Tables of support limits of t and X2
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The book is indeed a classic. Virtually every philosopher of science now writing about probabilistic inference has been influenced by Edwards' book, and his ideas are now as alive and relevant as they were when the book first appeared. Edwards is an absolutely seminal thinker in the foundations of statistics and scientific inference.
—Elliott Sober, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Elliott Sober

The book is indeed a classic. Virtually every philosopher of science now writing about probabilistic inference has been influenced by Edwards' book, and his ideas are now as alive and relevant as they were when the book first appeared. Edwards is an absolutely seminal thinker in the foundations of statistics and scientific inference.

Editorial Reviews

An important text and, in addition, is a joy to read, being a paragon of lucid and witty exposition.
—Mathematical Gazette

Full of appropriate examples (especially from genetics) and historical commentary, this monograph offers a rare simultaneous treatment of both mathematical and philosophical foundations.
—American Mathematical Monthly

This book is commended to all philosophers of science who are interested in the problems of scientific inference.
—Search

This book, by a well-known geneticist, will do much to publicize the generality of the likelihood method as a foundation for statistical procedure. It is both smoothly written and persuasive.
—Operations Research

From the Publisher

"This book is commended to all philosophers of science who are interested in the problems of scientific inference."

Search

Reprint of the 1972 Cambridge UP edition with a new (brief) preface. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

This book, by a well-known geneticist, will do much to publicize the generality of the likelihood method as a foundation for statistical procedure. It is both smoothly written and persuasive.

Operations Research

An important text and, in addition, is a joy to read, being a paragon of lucid and witty exposition.

Mathematical Gazette

Full of appropriate examples (especially from genetics) and historical commentary, this monograph offers a rare simultaneous treatment of both mathematical and philosophical foundations.

American Mathematical Monthly