Paolo Rocchi, Silvia Pandolfi, Lucia Rocchi
International Business Machines - IBM
53, Via Shangai, Roma, 00144, ITALY
e-mail: paolorocchi@it.ibm.com
Department of Economics, Finance and Statistics
Via Pascoli, Perugia, 06123, ITALY
Universitá degli Studi di Perugia
e-mail: pandolfi@stat.unipg.it
Department Economics, Appraisal and Food Science
Universitá degli Studi di Perugia
74, Via Borgo XX Giugno, Perugia, 06121, ITALY
e-mail: lucia.rocchi@unipg.it

Abstract.As the 20-th century advanced, the foundations of the so called classical statistics were laid and the Bayesian statistics experienced mounting popularity after the Second World War. Some statisticians firmly adhere to the classical or otherwise to the Bayesian methods, instead a third circle of dualist specialists accept both the views. Theoretical dualists attempt to merge the frequentist and the subjective conceptualizations together; in the meanwhile empirical dualists employ all the mathematical weapons in the living environment. The objective of this study is to analyze how the production of empirical dualists evolves over the decades, and how dualist authors see the fundamental questions which lie at the base of the frequentist and the subjective statistics. The present survey examines 452 electronic and paper books sampled from a University Library and Google Book Search. The results show the mounting popularity of the dualist movement and the substantial indifference of dualist authors to profound philosophical questions.

Received: August 18, 2009

AMS Subject Classification: 62A03

Key Words and Phrases: foundations of statistics, frequentism, Bayesian methods, multiple approach to statistics

Source: International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics
ISSN: 1311-8080
Year: 2010
Volume: 58
Issue: 3