ICPSR webinar on the use of statistics in the social sciences – Deirdre McCloskey
Join the ICPSR for a Webinar on Monday, October 28, 2:00-3:00 p.m. EDT. No registration required. Visit https://connect.umms.med.umich.edu/mccloskey/ and enter as a Guest
Description: Existence, arbitrary statistical significance, philosophical possibilities uncalibrated to the sizes of important effects in the world are useless for science. Yet in medical science, in population biology, in much of sociology, political science, psychology, and economics, in parts of literary study, there reigns the spirit of the Mathematics or Philosophy Departments (appropriate in their own fields of absolutes). The result, argues economist Deirdre McCloskey, has been a catastrophe for such sciences, or former sciences. The solution is simple: get back to seeking oomph. It would be wrong, of course, to abandon math or statistics. But they need every time to be put into a context of How Much, as they are in chemistry, in most biology, in history, and in engineering science.
A related interview with Deirdre McCloskey (PhD, Economics, Harvard) can be found here: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/content/ICPSR/mccloskey.html
For more information:
* Announcement: http://tinyurl.com/DMcCloskey
* Her website: www.deirdremccloskey.com