The Foundations of Statistics (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Classic analysis of the subject and the development of personal probability; one of the greatest controversies in modern statistcal thought. New preface and new footnotes to 1954 edition, with a supplementary 180-item annotated bibliography by author. Calculus, probability, statistics and Boolean algebra are recommended.

Product Details

• Paperback: 310 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications; 2 Revised edition (June 1, 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486623491
• ISBN-13: 978-0486623498
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #287,933 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant exposition of personalist (subjective) probabilty, December 16, 1998

By A Customer

Savage rigorously reworks the approach of Frank Plumpton Ramsey to give us a personalist (subjectivist) probability construct, and uses this to found a theory of statistics. Even many of us who disagree strongly with Savage are greatly impressed by this remarkable work.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievably Good, March 20, 2009

By	Charles Saunders (Tallahassee, FL United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

One of the earliest books/texts to present the Bayesian paradigm. You need at least three semesters of calculus to do the math - Savage was one of the statisticians who worked on the Manhattan Project and this text is very rigorous.

6 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars L J Savage was never able to deal technically with ambiguity, November 17, 2004

By	Michael Emmett Brady "mandmbrady" (Bellflower, California ,United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

John Maynard Keynes's A Treatise on Probability(1921;TP)was given a five star rating by this reviewer because he dealt clearly and succinctly with what Ellsberg later called "ambiguity".Keynes did not use the terminology of Ellsberg.In the TP Keynes analyzed the problem of ambiguity using the term "weight of the evidence".In the General Theory(GT)Keynes used the term"uncertainty".Keynes defined an index to measure the weight of the evidence,denoted by the variable w.By definition,0<=w<=1(See p.315,TP,chapter 26).Keynes then incorporated w into a decision rule which he called a conventional coefficient of weight and risk c.Given outcome A,the decisionmaker's goal is to maximize cA,as opposed to pA or pU(A),where p equals a probability(p+q=1)and U(A)is a utility function.c=p(1/(1+q)[2w/1+w].Savage did discuss the problem of ambiguity or uncertainty or lack of evidential weight using the term vagueness.Unfortunately,after discussing the problem of vagueness,Savage decided not to deal with this problem technically.Savage's technical analysis of decision making under risk is certainly very interesting.However,his failure to deal with the problem that Keynes had already solved in his TP means that I can only give Savage four stars.