Philo of Sci Assoc (PSA) Session: Current Debates on Statistical Modeling and Inference

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The Philosophy of Science Association (PSA) is holding its biennial meeting (one year late)–live/hybrid/remote*–in November, 2021, and I plan to be there (first in-person meeting since Feb 2020). Some of the members from the 2019 Summer Seminar that I ran with Aris Spanos are in a Symposium:

Current Debates on Statistical Modeling and Inference
(co-author Mike Tamir, Berkeley)     on November 13, 9 am-12:15 pm  

Here are the members and talks (Link to session/abstracts):

• Aris Spanos (Virginia Tech): Self-Correction and Statistical Misspecification (co-author Deborah Mayo, Virginia Tech)
• Roubin Gong (Rutgers): Measuring Severity in Statistical Inference
• Riet van Bork (University of Amsterdam): Psychometric Models: Statistics and Interpretation (co-author Jan-Willem Romeijn, University of Groningen)
• Marcello di Bello (Lehman College CUNY): Is Algorithmic Fairness Possible?
• Elay Shech (Auburn University): Statistical Modeling, Mis-specification Testing, and Exploration (co-author Mike Tamir, Berkeley)

Session Abstract: Statistical methods play an essential role in an extremely wide range of human reasoning. From theorizing in the physical and social sciences to determining evidential standards in legal contexts, statistical methods are ubiquitous, and so are questions about their adequate application. As tools for making inferences that go beyond a given set of data, they are inherently a means of inductive, or ampliative reasoning, and so it is unsurprising that philosophers have used statistical frameworks to further our understanding of these topics. Yet statistical methods are undergoing considerable debate with important implications for standards of research across social and biological science. In the last decade many published results in the medical and social sciences have been found not to replicate. This has sparked debates about the very nature of statistical inference and modeling. Combining perspectives from philosophy, statistics, psychology, and economics, our symposium focuses on these recent debates. It will be a topical session building on Deborah Mayo’s Statistical Inference as Severe Testing: How to Get Beyond the Statistics Wars (CUP, 2018), and a 2019 Summer Seminar on Philosophy of Statistics co-directed by D. Mayo and A. Spanos, in which all presenters of our proposed session participated.

You have to register to participate, and be there in person to see our hybrid presentation. Let me know if you plan to attend!

*There’s a complex mix of viewing classifications, wherein only in-person people can view in person or hybrid sessions, but remote registrants can see all (but only) remote sessions.

Current Debates on Statistical Modeling and Inference