William M. Briggs

Probability Is Logic: Philosophy of Probability & Statistics Video Series

I'm starting---and even continuing, if there is interest---a new video series on the philosophy of probability and statistics. Look at those retro production values! I boast of them following Julia…

Culture Philosophy Statistics

On Intelligence & Religiosity

Take a pencil and paper---do this---and write down the most intelligent people who have ever lived. Most brilliant in any field of endeavor, now. Who were the best of us?…

Culture Statistics

Researchers Invent Exciting New Disease: Poverty Blindness

There must soon come a day at The Onion, the satirical newspaper, when the editors will gather in bewilderment and say to each other, "Fellas, there's no use. The real…

Statistics

Scientists Discover Men Enjoy Looking At Women’s Breasts.

Regular readers will recall there are two main kinds of bad statistics. First is when the technique has been done wrong or is misapplied. Errors of this kind comprise only…

Philosophy Statistics

What Statistics Really Is: Part II

Read Part I, Part Paradox I claimed, and it is true, that all statistical problems could be written $latex \Pr(p|q)$, where p is a proposition of interest and q is…

Philosophy Statistics

What Statistics Really Is: Paradox Digression

Read Part I We're taking a small digression to answer a question put by Deborah Mayo in Part I, pointing to this article on her site. Mayo should be on…

Philosophy Statistics

What Statistics Really Is: Part I

It's so simple that you'll think I'm kidding. Worse, the way I'll show it is such a radical departure from the manner in which you're used to thinking about probability…

Culture Fun

Huffington Post Gives Helpful ‘To Do’ List To Pope Francis

I didn't finish the 'What Statistics Really Is' post so you have to settle for this. After (I imagine) completing a rock-solid thirty minutes of intense theological studies and drawing…

David on Bad Black Health Blamed On SlaveryAugust 20, 2026
I would also like to point out that slaves often had *better* medical care than their working-class white counterparts, being…
Cary Cotterman on Bad Black Health Blamed On SlaveryAugust 20, 2026
Perhaps slave traders found low-intelligence blacks easier to capture, resulting in an intellectually challenged population of blacks in the U.S.…
Brian (bulaoren) on Bad Black Health Blamed On SlaveryAugust 20, 2026
Where do homicide rates fit in?
McChuck on Is Moral Certainty Possible?August 20, 2026
I am morally certain that murdering innocent children for fun and profit is evil. There. That was easy.
JohnK on Is Moral Certainty Possible?August 19, 2026
For me, 'moral certainty' is a category error. Such talk has to be refused, not engaged. One example. The New…

William M. Briggs

Bad Black Health Blamed On Slavery

Is Moral Certainty Possible?

We Passed Peak “Climate Change” (um) Research

Sweet Wee Ps Say Sugar Makes You Lose Your Mind

AI Is Neither Artificial Nor Intelligent

You Can’t Con An Honest Man & The Case of Jason Arday

Academics: Achieve Sustainability by Easing Population to 4 Billion by 2200

The Impossibility of Proposition Nations

Ugly Women Rulers Condemn Lookism

The Wee P Boogie: The Song That’s Sweeping the Nation!

Wolfgang Smith For Everyone

Death By Organ Donation

$7.11 at 7:11 PM on 7/11 at 7/11: What Are The Chances?

Caution Against The Precautionary Principle: Interview with Jaap Hanekamp

Believing In God Makes You Crave Potato Chips, Say Academics

Hume’s Guillotine, Euclid’s Catapult: Induction, Axioms, and Objective Ethics

University of California Prof Tries To Save System From DIEing

The Equality Paradox

My Horrible Interaction With AI

SOON

The Court’s Slow Theft Of The Constitution — Guest Post by Ianto Watt

Bad Black Health Blamed On Slavery

Is Moral Certainty Possible?

Probability Is Logic: Philosophy of Probability & Statistics Video Series

On Intelligence & Religiosity

Researchers Invent Exciting New Disease: Poverty Blindness

Scientists Discover Men Enjoy Looking At Women’s Breasts.

What Statistics Really Is: Part II

What Statistics Really Is: Paradox Digression

What Statistics Really Is: Part I

Huffington Post Gives Helpful ‘To Do’ List To Pope Francis

There Is No Culture Without Inequality: Stove 1

Impose Your Beliefs Before They Impose Theirs

Telekinesis: Ideas In Our Reenchantment & Rectification

The Physics Of Blessings: Ideas In Our Reenchantment & Rectification