STA 119FS Statistics as a Way of Thinking

STA 119FS Duke Department of Statistical Science

Statistics as a
Way of Thinking

History, Ideas, and Evidence

A seminar about how statistical ideas reshaped reasoning about uncertainty—and how quantitative evidence came to influence science and public life.

Instructor Alexander Volfovsky
Co-instructor Kat Husar
Explore the course Course materials
From observations to inference A conceptual diagram showing scattered observations becoming an organized comparison and then an estimate with uncertainty. 01 OBSERVE 02 COMPARE 03 INFER uncertainty
Notice a pattern. Make it comparable. Ask what it supports.

01 / The course

Statistics is more than a toolbox.

Its history is a history of reasoning with imperfect information.

The seminar approaches statistics as an intellectual history and a living practice: a collection of ideas that reshaped how people describe uncertainty, make comparisons, and argue from evidence.

History

How counting people, measuring variation, and governing by numbers changed what societies could see.

Ideas

How probability, models, uncertainty, and causation gave evidence a formal language.

Evidence

How statistical arguments gain authority—and where their assumptions, omissions, and values enter.

02 / Guiding questions

The questions behind the calculations.

The seminar asks how technical ideas connect to the human problems that give them meaning.

  1. What becomes visible when the world is translated into numbers?

  2. What makes one piece of evidence more persuasive than another?

  3. How should we judge a statistical claim—and what might it leave out?

03 / Grading

How the course grade is built.

The final grade is distributed across eight components. Detailed prompts and grading criteria will be provided separately.

Assessment Weight
Lab attendance
5%
Lab completion
5%
Homework
25%
Homework presentation in class
5%
Class discussion lead
10%
General class discussion
10%
Quiz
10%
Final project
30%
Total 100%

04 / Course materials

A home for the seminar.

Materials will appear here as the course takes shape. The site is ready for the syllabus, calendar, readings, and assignments.

01

Syllabus

Aims, expectations, and policies

Planned
02

Seminar calendar

Meetings, topics, and due dates

Planned
03

Reading shelf

Primary texts, essays, and context

Planned
04

Assignments

Prompts and activities

Planned