Dear Marcio
BU.EDU = Boston U? Good hocky team this year?
>Also, I might be wrong, but it seems to me that scientists usually don't
>use this distinction between probability and statistics while using an
>hypothetical-deductive method. Imagine an experiment to test the effect
>of some drug. They would use probability to establish the working and
the
>alternative hypothesis, but afterwards they would analyse the results
>using statistics. If the distiction you suggest is really important in
>this case, someone could say that they can't really state anything
>about the outcome of the experiment because it is a "historical
>singularity" and all one could say about it (mathematically) is that it
>happened.
Yes, This is correct if the sample size was 1. They could only conclude
that the
effect of the drug on this one person was . . . . They could come to a
different - a more meaningful conclusion - if the sample size was 10,000.
Say the drug was released and it was expected that 5% would experience a
particular side effect. After the first 10,000 people bought the drug 95%
of them got the side effect. What do we conclude? God's will because we
calculated 5%?
We only know about one universe and it contains life. For sure, we only
know about one planet and it contains life. A mathematical - historical
singularity.
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