
Preface
The conversion of experience to knowledge is the cornerstone of the scientific
method and, arguably, the most valuable of mankind’s intellectual activities. Despite
the importance of this activity, the field of statistics, which is concerned with how
experience-to-knowledge conversions should be made, is still surprisingly underde-
veloped. To be clear, there has been substantial development in statistical method-
ology, driven in part by rapid scientific and technological advances, but the subject
lacks a solid theory for reasoning with uncertainty. This book grew out of the authors’
recent attempts to understand the basic foundations of statistical ...