“Econometrics may be defined as the quantitative analysis of actual economic phenomena based on the concurrent development of theory and observation, related by appropriate methods of inference.” MayEconomicTheoryDevelopmentMethodObservationDefinedAnalysisRelatedAppropriateInferenceEconometrics Author:Paul Samuelson
“[T]ruly grand and powerful theories [...] do not and cannot rest upon single observations. Evolution is an inference from thousands of independent sources, the only conceptual structure that can make unified sense of all this disparate information. The failure of a particular claim usually records a local error, not the bankruptcy of a central theory. [...] If I mistakenly identify your father's brother as your own dad, you don't become genealogically rootless and created de novo. You still have a father; we just haven't located him properly.” IfsStillsFatherPowerfulRecordsHavensInformationParticularBrotherTheorySourceEvolutionDadClaimsIndependentStructureErrorsLocalsObservationBankruptcyUnifiedInference Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“Under my definition, a scientific theory is a proposed explanation which focuses or points to physical, observable data and logical inferences. There are many things throughout the history of science which we now think to be incorrect which nonetheless would fit that which would fit that definition. Yes, astrology is in fact one.” ThinkingFactsTheoryFitDefinitionsDataExplanationLogicalAstrologyInferenceHistory Of ScienceScientific Theory Author:Michael Behe
“Second, I use inference from technical studies and theories in order to provide practical information for therapists. Those thoughts are several steps removed from scientific validity.” UseOrderStepsStudyInformationTheoryPracticalsTherapistsValidityInference Author:Virgil Miller Newton
“The theory that the man who raises corn does a more important piece of work than the woman who makes it into bread is absurd. The inference is that the men alone render useful service. But neither man nor woman eats these things until the woman has prepared it.” MenDoeImportantPiecesHe ManTheoryRaisesPreparedEqualityBreadAbsurdCornInference Author:Ida Tarbell
“I may remark parenthetically that the modern apparatus of the theory of small samples, once it goes beyond the determination of its own specially defined parameters and becomes a method for positive statistical inference in new cases, does not inspire me with any confidence unless it is applied by a statistician by whom the main elements of the dynamics of the situation are either explicitly known or implicitly felt.” MayDoeFeltSituationKnownCasesModernInspireTheoryElementsDeterminationMethodDefinedRemarksDynamicsSampleParametersInferenceStatistician Book:Cybernetics Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine Source: Cybernetics Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine
“I look at the most promising putative moral theories. I construct crucial thought experiments in areas where they give conflicting advice. I confront their conflicting advice with my own moral sensitivity, my moral intuition. I take the theory that can best explain the content of my intuitions as gaining inductive support through an inference to the best explanation.” GivingLooksMy OwnMoralSupportAdviceTheoryAreasIntuitionExperimentsExplanationCrucialSensitivityConstructsInference Author:Torbjorn Tannsjo