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Encyclopedia > Thomas Bayes

Thomas Bayes

Thomas Bayes (The correct identification of this portrait has been [1] questioned.)
Born c. 1702
London
Died April 17th 1761
Tunbridge Wells
Nationality British

Thomas Bayes (c. 1702April 17, 1761) was a British mathematician and Presbyterian minister, known for having formulated a special case of Bayes' theorem, which was published posthumously. PD image of Rev. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... April 17 is the 107th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (108th in leap years). ... 1761 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... , Royal Tunbridge Wells (often called simply Tunbridge Wells) is a Wealden town in west Kent in England, just north of the border with East Sussex. ... Events March 8 - William III died; Princess Anne Stuart becomes Queen Anne of England, Scotland and Ireland. ... is the 107th day of the year (108th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1761 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Leonhard Euler, considered one of the greatest mathematicians of all time A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of mathematics. ... Presbyterianism is part of the Reformed churches family of denominations of Christian Protestantism based on the teachings of John Calvin which traces its institutional roots to the Scottish Reformation, especially as led by John Knox. ... Bayes theorem (also known as Bayes rule or Bayes law) is a result in probability theory, which relates the conditional and marginal probability distributions of random variables. ...

Contents

Biography

Thomas Bayes was born in London. In 1719 he enrolled at the University of Edinburgh to study logic and theology: as a Nonconformist, Oxford and Cambridge were closed to him. This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... // Events January 23 - The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire April 25 - Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe June 10 - Battle of Glen Shiel Prussia conducts Europes first systematic census Miners in Falun, Sweden find an apparently petrified body of Fet-Mats Israelsson in an unused... The University of Edinburgh (Scottish Gaelic: ), founded in 1582,[4] is a renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... A nonconformist is an English or Welsh Protestant of any non-Anglican denomination, chiefly advocating religious liberty. ...


He is known to have published two works in his lifetime: Divine Benevolence, or an Attempt to Prove That the Principal End of the Divine Providence and Government is the Happiness of His Creatures (1731), and An Introduction to the Doctrine of Fluxions, and a Defence of the Mathematicians Against the Objections of the Author of the Analyst (published anonymously in 1736), in which he defended the logical foundation of Isaac Newton's calculus against the criticism of George Berkeley, author of The Analyst. Events 10 Downing Street becomes the official residence of the United Kingdoms Prime Minister when Robert Walpole moves in. ... Events January 26 - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne. ... Sir Isaac Newton FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) [ OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727][1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist. ... For other uses, see Calculus (disambiguation). ... For the second husband of Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk, see George Berkeley (MP). ... The Analyst, subtitled A DISCOURSE Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician, is a book published by George Berkeley in 1734. ...


It is speculated that Bayes was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1742 on the strength of the Introduction to the Doctrine of Fluxions, as he is not known to have published any other mathematical works during his lifetime. It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ... For other uses, see Royal Society (disambiguation). ... // Events January 24 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor. ...


Bayes died in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He is buried in Bunhill Fields Cemetery in London where many Nonconformists are buried. , Royal Tunbridge Wells (often called simply Tunbridge Wells) is a Wealden town in west Kent in England, just north of the border with East Sussex. ... For other uses, see Kent (disambiguation). ... Blake Memorial in Bunhill Fields Bunhill Fields is a cemetery located in the London Borough of Islington, north of the City of London, and managed by the Corporation of London. ...


Bayes' theorem

Main article: Bayes' theorem

Bayes' solution to a problem of "inverse probability" was presented in the Essay Towards Solving a Problem in the Doctrine of Chances (1764), published posthumously by his friend Richard Price in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. This essay contains a statement of a special case of Bayes' theorem. Bayes theorem (also known as Bayes rule or Bayes law) is a result in probability theory, which relates the conditional and marginal probability distributions of random variables. ... 1764 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Richard Price (February 23, 1723 – April 19, 1791), was a Welsh moral and political philosopher. ... Bayes theorem (also known as Bayes rule or Bayes law) is a result in probability theory, which relates the conditional and marginal probability distributions of random variables. ...


In the first decades of the eighteenth century, many problems concerning the probability of certain events, given specified conditions, were solved. For example, given a specified number of white and black balls in an urn, what is the probability of drawing a black ball? These are sometimes called "forward probability" problems. Attention soon turned to the converse of such a problem: given that one or more balls has been drawn, what can be said about the number of white and black balls in the urn? The Essay of Bayes contains his solution to a similar problem, posed by Abraham de Moivre, author of The Doctrine of Chances (1718). (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Abraham de Moivre. ... The Doctrine of Chances is a book on probability theory by 18th-century French mathematician Abraham de Moivre, published in 1733. ... Year 1718 (MDCCXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). ...


In addition to the Essay Towards Solving a Problem, a paper on asymptotic series was published posthumously. In mathematics and applications, particularly the analysis of algorithms, asymptotic analysis is a method of classifying limiting behaviour, by concentrating on some trend. ...


Bayes and Bayesianism

Bayesian probability is the name given to several related interpretations of probability, which have in common the notion of probability as something like a partial belief, rather than a frequency. This allows the application of probability to all sorts of propositions rather than just ones that come with a reference class. "Bayesian" has been used in this sense since about 1950. He was intrerested in probability after reading a paper by Simpson. Bayesian probability is an interpretation of probability suggested by Bayesian theory, which holds that the concept of probability can be defined as the degree to which a person believes a proposition. ... Probability is the likelihood that something is the case or will happen. ...


It is not at all clear that Bayes himself would have embraced the very broad interpretation now called Bayesian. It is difficult to assess Bayes' philosophical views on probability, as the only direct evidence is his essay, which does not go into questions of interpretation. In the essay, Bayes defines probability as follows (Definition 5).

The probability of any event is the ratio between the value at which an expectation depending on the happening of the event ought to be computed, and the chance of the thing expected upon it's [sic] happening

In modern utility theory we would say that expected utility is - sometimes, because buying risk for small amounts or buying security for big amounts also happens - the probability of an event times the payoff received in case of that event. Rearranging that to solve for the probability, we obtain Bayes' definition. As Stigler (citation below) points out, this is a subjective definition, and does not require repeated events; however, it does require that the event in question be observable, for otherwise it could never be said to have "happened". (Some would argue, however, that things can happen without being observable.) For other uses, see SIC. Sic is a Latin word, originally sicut [1] meaning thus, so, or just as that. In writing, it is placed within square brackets and usually italicized — [sic] — to indicate that an incorrect or unusual spelling, phrase, punctuation, and/or other preceding quoted material has been... This article is about utility in economics and in game theory. ...


Thus it can be argued, as Stigler does, that Bayes intended his results in a rather more limited way than modern Bayesians; given Bayes' definition of probability, his result concerning the parameter of a binomial distribution makes sense only to the extent that one can bet on its observable consequences.


See also

In statistics, empirical Bayes methods involve: An underlying probability distribution of some unobservable quantity assigned to each member of a statistical population. ...

References

  • Andrew I. Dale. "Most Honourable Remembrance: The Life and Work of Thomas Bayes". ISBN 0-387-00499-8. Springer, 2003.
  • Stephen M. Stigler. "Who Discovered Bayes's Theorem?" The American Statistician, 37(4):290–296, 1983.

The Journal of the Royal Statistical Society is a series of three peer-reviewed statistics journals published by Blackwell Publishing for the London-based Royal Statistical Society. ...

External links

Persondata
NAME Bayes, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION British mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH 1702
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH April 17th 1761
PLACE OF DEATH Tunbridge Wells

  Results from FactBites:
 
Thomas Bayes Biography | World of Mathematics (650 words)
Thomas Bayes, a Presbyterian minister, expressed a method of inductive inference in a precise and quantitative form, which lead to the development of Bayesian statistics, or Bayesian inference.
Thomas' place of birth is usually listed as London, but one biographer suggests that he was born in Hertfordshire, where his peripatetic father supposedly preached at the time of his birth.
Thomas Bayes' name appears in a 1719 catalogue of manuscripts in the Edinburgh University Library, and in a number of other records at the University over the period 1720-1722, including class lists and a list of theologues.
Bayes' theorem: Definition and Much More from Answers.com (3133 words)
Bayes' theorem is a logical consequence of the product rule of probability, which is the probability (P) of two events (A and B) happening— P(A,B)—is equal to the conditional probability of one event occurring given that the other has already occurred—P(AB)—multiplied by the probability of the other event happening—P(B).
Bayes' theorem (also known as Bayes' rule or Bayes' law) is a result in probability theory, which relates the conditional and marginal probability distributions of random variables.
Bayes' theorem is named after the Reverend Thomas Bayes (1702–1761), who studied how to compute a distribution for the parameter of a binomial distribution (to use modern terminology).
  More results at FactBites »

 

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