Statistical Knowledge and Statistical Inference

In order to set the stage for what follows, I should like to explain, if I can, why philosophers sometimes worry about the sun’s rising rather than about techniques for randomized sampling. Ordinary people ordinarily take themselves to know some things, to have reasoned opinions about others, and to be in ignorance of yet others. They take other people to know some things, to have reasoned opinions about others, and to be in ignorance of yet others. But they also take other people to be immensely pig-headed about some things, and to be irrationally opinionated about others. You recall Shaw’s conjugation: I am firm, You are stubborn, he is pig-headed.