Abstract
Statistics is basically mathematical, so the first question considered is why the human species can do mathematics as well as it can. Since the genetic composition of mankind cannot have changed much in the past ten or twenty thousand years, we have to explain man’s capacity for mathematics in terms of traits evolved for the needs of the hunter—gatherers of prehistory. An explanation is given in terms of the survival advantages of logical reasoning and symbolic thinking. The second question considered is why the mathematics that humans do in their minds works as well as it does when it is applied in the real world. It is suggested that the most likely explanation is that, at least to a good approximation, the world has the simple mathematical structure that it appears to have, and that man’s mind evolved by natural selection to mirror this structure. Since the relation between the mathematical models used in statistics and external reality is not essentially different from the relation between mathematics and reality in other branches of the natural sciences, it is not surprising that statistical theory works as well as it does in the real world. An attempt is made to apply Darwinian thinking to the cultural evolution of statistics. While the success of this is debatable, it is suggested that looking at the development of statistics from an evolutionary perspective helps to improve our understanding of some of the factors involved, at least to a modest degree.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Abian, A. (1965). The Theory of Sets and Transfinite Arithmetic. Philadelphia: Saunders.
Aitchison, J. (1983). The Articulate Mammal: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics, (paperback 2nd edn.) London: Hutchison
Alexander, R. D. (1979). Darwinism and Human Affairs. Seattle: Univ. Washington Press. (1980, London: Pitman.)
Binmore, K. G. (1980). The Foundations of Analysis: A Straightforward Introduction. Book 1, Logic, Sets and Numbers. Cambridge: University Press.
Bodmer W. F. (1981). “Gene clusters, genome organization and complex phenotypes. When the sequence is known, what will it mean?” Amer. J. Hum. Genet., 33, 664–682.
Bodmer, W. F. (1983). “Gene clusters and genome evolution.”In D. S. Bendall (ed.), Evolution from Molecules to Men. Cambridge: University Press, 197–208.
Bodmer, W. F. and Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. (1976). Genetics, Evolution and Man. San Francisco: Freeman.
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. and Feldman, M. W. (1981). Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach. Princeton: University Press.
Charlesworth, B., Lande, R., and Slatkin, M. (1982). “A neo-Darwinian comment on macroevolution.” Evolution, 36, 474–498.
Chomsky, N. (1980). Rules and Representations. New York: Columbia U. P.
Cohen, P. (1966). Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis. New York: Benjamin.
Dawkins, R. (1976). The Selfish Gene. Oxford: University Press. (Paperback, 1978, London: Granada.)
Dawkins, R. (1982). The Extended Phenotype: The Gene as a Unit of Selection. Oxford: Freeman.
Dobzhansky, T. and Boesiger, E. (1983). Human Culture: A Moment in Evolution. New York: Columbia U. P.
Eldredge, N. and Gould, S. J. (1972). “Punctuated equilibria: An alternative to phyletic gradualism.” In T. J. M. Schopf (ed.) Models in Paleobiology. San Franciso: Freeman Cooper, 82–115.
Gould, S. J. (1977). Ever Since Darwin (paperback). New York: Norton.
Gould, S. J. (1981). The Mismeasure of Man (paperback). New York: Norton.
King’s College Sociobiology Group (1982). Current Problems in Sociobiology. Cambridge U. P.
Kline, M. (1980). Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty. Oxford: University Press. (Paperback).
Kruskal, W. H. and Tanur, J. M. (eds.) (1978). The International Encyclopedia of Statistics. New York: Free Press.
Lakatos, I. (1976). A renaissance of empiricism in the recent philosophy of mathematics. Brit. J. Philos. Sci., 27, 201–223.
Lakatos, I. and Musgrave, A. (1970). Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (paperback). Cambridge: University Press.
Lenneberg, E. (1967). Biological Foundations of Language. New York: Wiley.
Lorenz, K. (1977). Behind the Mirror: A Search for a Natural History of Human Knowledge (paperback). London: Methuen.
Lumsden, C. J. and Wilson, E. O. (1981). Genes, Mind and Culture: The Revolutionary Process. Cambridge: Harvard U. P.
Lumsden, C. J. and Wilson, E. O. (1983). Promethean Fire: Reflections on the Origin of Mind. Cambridge: Harvard U. P.
Maynard Smith, J. (1982). Evolution Now: A Century after Darwin (paperback). London: Nature and Macmillan.
Mayr, E. (1982). “Speciation and macroevolution.” Evolution, 36, 1119–1132.
Miller, D. (1983). A Pocket Popper. London: Fontana Paperbacks.
Monod, J. (1971). Chance and Necessity. New York:, Knopf. (Translated from Le Hazard et la Necessità, 1970, Paris: Editions du Seuil. English ed., 1972, London: Collins. Paperbacks, 1974, London: Fontana; and 1977, London: Fount.)
Orgel, L. E. (1973). The Origins of Life: Molecules and Natural Selection. New York: Wiley.
Popper, K. R. (1959). The Logic of Scientific Discovery. London: Hutchinson. (Revised paperback, 1980.)
Popper, K. R. (1976). Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography. London: Fontana (Paperback).
Popper, K. R. (1979). Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach (revised paperback ed.) Oxford: Clarendon.
Schilpp, P. A. (ed.) (1966). The Philosophy of Karl R. Popper. La Salle: Open Court.
Shorrocks, B. (1978). The Genesis of Diversity (paperback). London: Hodder and Stoughton (Paperback).
Watson, J. D. (1977). Molecular Biology of the Gene, 3rd ed. Menlo Park: Benjamin.
Westergaard, H. (1932). Contributions to the History of Statistics. London: King.
Wilder, R. L. (1968). Evolution of Mathematical Concepts. New York: Wiley. (Paperback, 1974, London: Transworld Student Library.)
Wilson, E. O. (1975). Sociobiology: The New Synthesis Cambridge, MA: Harvard U. P.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1985 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Durbin, J. (1985). Evolutionary Origins of Statisticians and Statistics. In: Atkinson, A.C., Fienberg, S.E. (eds) A Celebration of Statistics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8560-8_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8560-8_9
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-8562-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-8560-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive