Philosophical foundations of statistics

2026-03-04

AI Summary

This study addresses the philosophical foundations of statistics, aiming to clarify the objectives and methods of statistical inference and their interpretive challenges within the philosophy of science and the philosophy of probability. By integrating philosophical analysis with theoretical synthesis, it systematically unifies core issues such as the formulation of statistical goals and the meaning of inference within a coherent contextual framework. The research not only maps key themes at the intersection of statistics and philosophy and elucidates their internal connections, but also provides a robust theoretical basis for understanding the nature of statistical inference, thereby fostering deeper reflection on the philosophical presuppositions underlying statistical practice.

Technology Category

• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Philosophical Foundations of AI
• Reasoning under Uncertainty: Other Foundations of Reasoning under Uncertainty
• Machine Learning: Statistical Relational/Logic Learning

Application Category

• Semantics and Knowledge: Methods, algorithms and applications for the development of semantic models, knowledge graphs and other forms of structured data models with machine-interpretable semantics
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Algorithms and analysis for incomplete, noisy, or partially observed Web-related graphs
• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance

Abstract

The philosophical foundations of statistics involve issues in theoretical statistics, such as goals and methods to meet these goals, and interpretation of the meaning of inference using statistics. They are related to the philosophy of science and to the philosophy of probability. We review the core and partly interrelated themes and place them in context.

Problem

• philosophical foundations
• statistics
• philosophy of science
• philosophy of probability
• statistical inference

Innovation

• philosophical foundations
• statistical inference
• philosophy of science
• philosophy of probability
• theoretical statistics