Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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I wonder if statistics should be considered partially a social science rather than an entirely mathematical one. Obviously math is important but…I’ll think about it and come back to this
Edit: mm probably not. I was just thinking about how economics is very much more a social science than what “economists” want it to be so I was trying to think of any other fields that may be like this
It’s an interesting thing to think about - I would argue that you have a point, but unlike economics, which is by definition social because humans are fundamental to the economy - statistics can be focused on non-human subjects across the natural sciences. But, when statistics is applied to humans and societies e.g. through sample surveys, I would argue that in those situations it is operating as a social science.
I’ve not delved deeply into the definitions around this, my work is usually in programme evaluation in the development sector, but I’d be interested to look up academic writing around this question.
I’m unfortunately one of those crazy people who is genuinely enthusiastic about the philosophy of science and abstract definitions.