About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

9 Kan. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 49 (1999-2000)
Statistics: The Language of Science (Part I)

handle is hein.journals/kjpp9 and id is 63 raw text is: Statistics: The Language of Science (Part I) Fred S. McChesney My job is to help you all achieve what Daubert' was talking about. We're going to get statistically literate here. I was saying to Judge Stephen Hill before I came up, No problem, we have an hour and forty-five minutes over two days, to learn statistics. Some people spend years to get Ph.D.'s in this stuff and we're going to do it in an hour and forty-five minutes. I am assuming that nobody knows anything in particular about this so we are going to take it from the ground up. Ignorance is no curse. There is nothing to be ashamed about here. What is required to do statistics are basic intuitions and a certain amount of intelligence, and from my experience with this group, I know we have the intelligence; and I am going to give you the intuitions. Some of the points that I'll be making this evening and tomorrow morning will overlap certain of the points that Dr. Gordis was talking to you about. I'll point out, however, that his experience and his background are rather different from mine. My experience comes from the social sciences, economics in particular, not from the natural sciences or the laboratory sciences. There are certain differences, some of which I will point out if time permits as we go along. Our point of departure when we talk about statistics is that the world does work in a certain way. When I teach statistics to my law students, they are used to thinking about it as things are taught in law school: on-the-one-hand this, on-the-other-hand that. That's something that annoys statisticians, to put it mildly. As the well-known statistician Maurice Kendall wrote, A friend of mine once remarked to me that if some people asserted that the earth rotated east to west and others, that it rotated from west to east, there would always be a few well-meaning citizens to suggest that perhaps there was something to be said for both sides; and maybe it did a little of one and a little of the other; or that the truth probably lay between the extremes and perhaps it did not rotate at all.2 We, as statisticians, don't feel that way. We know that the world works in a certain way and that it's our job to find out how it does work. But, we believe it works in a certain way and we believe that we can know it. We can know things in a statistical sense. What do we mean by statistics? In the Kaye and Freedman statistical guide in the reference manual, the authors define it as the art and science of gaining information from data I don't disagree with that description of it, but I'm particularly interested in focusing on how statistics is used in legal settings, and I think that Fred S. MeChesney, Ph.D., J.D., James B. that definition doesn't quite fit what it is that we Haddad/Class of 1967 Professor, Northwestern wantto b takingabot. Ad s forour Law School; and Professor, Department of want to be talking about. And so for our Management & Strategy, Kellogg School of purposes, I'm going to redefine statistics as the Management, Northwestern University. use of sample information to make reasonable inferences about underlying characteristics of the

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most