Why are normal distributions normal?

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science

Volumn 65, Issue 3, 2014, Pages 621-649

  Lyon, Aidan ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84896747070     PISSN: 00070882     EISSN: 14643537     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/bjps/axs046     Document Type: Article

References (33)

1. Baker, A. [2005]: 'Are There Genuine Mathematical Explanations of Physical Phenomena?', Mind, 114, p. 223.
2. Baker, A. [2009]: 'Mathematical Explanation in Science', The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 60, pp. 611-33.
3. Baker, A. [2012]: 'Science-Driven Mathematical Explanation', Mind, 121, pp. 243-67.
4. Bening, V. and Korolev, V. [2002]: Generalized Poisson Models and Their Applications in Insurance and Finance, Volume 7, Zeist, Netherlands: VSP.
5. Cramer, H. [1946]: Mathematical Methods of Statistics, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
6. de Finetti, B. [1990]: Theory of Probability, Volume 2, Chichester: John Wiley.
7. Denny, M. and Gaines, S. [2000]: Chance in Biology: Using Probability to Explore Nature, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
8. Feller, W. [1971]: An Introduction to Probability Theory and its Applications, Volume 2., New York: John Wiley.
9. Frank, S. A. [2009]: 'The Common Patterns of Nature', Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 22, pp. 1563-85.
10. Galton, F. [1875]: 'Statistics by Intercomparison, with Remarks on the Law of Frequency of Error', Philosophical Magazine, 4, pp. 33-46.
11. Gillespie, J. H. [1998]: Population Genetics: A Concise Guide, Baltimore, Maryland: John Hopkins University Press.
12. Goodman, N. [1955]: Fact, Fiction, and Forecast, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
13. Gregersen, E. (ed.) [2010]: The Britannica Guide to Statistics and Probability, New York: Rosen Education Service.
14. Grinstead, C. and Snell, J. [1997]: Introduction to Probability, Providence, Rhode Island: American Mathematical Society.
15. Hartl, D. L. and Clark, A. G. (eds) [1989]: Principles of Population Genetics, Sunderland: Sinauer Associates.
16. Hoeffding, W. and Robbins, H. [1948]: 'The Central Limit Theorem for Dependent Random Variables', Duke Mathematical Journal, 15, pp. 773-80.
17. Jaynes, E. [1968]: 'Prior Probabilities', IEEE Transactions on Systems Science and Cybernetics, 4, pp. 227-41.
18. Jaynes, E. [2003]: Probability Theory: The Logic of Science, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
19. Koch, A. [1969]: 'The Logarithm in Biology, II: Distributions Simulating the Log-Normal', Journal of Theoretical Biology, 23, pp. 251-68.
20. Koenker, R. [2009]: 'The Median is the Message: Wilson and Hilfertys Experiments on the Law of Errors', The American Statistician, 63, pp. 20-5.
21. Leon-Garcia, A. [2008]: Probability, Statistics, and Random Processes for Electrical Engineering, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.
22. Limpert, E., Stahel, W. A. and Abbt, M. [2001]: 'Log-Normal Distributions across the Sciences: Keys and Clues', Bio Science, 51, pp. 341-52.
23. Lyon, A. [2012]: 'Mathematical Explanations of Empirical Facts, and Mathematical Realism', Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 90, pp. 559-78.
24. Mandal, B. [2009]: Global Encyclopaedia of Welfare Economics, New Delhi: Global Vision Publishing House.
25. Mlodinow, L. [2008]: The Drunkard's Walk, New York: Pantheon Books.
26. Peirce, C. S. [1873]: On the Theory of Errors of Observation, Report of the Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey, pp. 200-24.
27. Popper, K. [1982]: Quantum Theory and the Schism in Physics, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield.
28. Roush, M. and Webb, W. [2000]: Applied Reliability Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park: The Centre for Reliability Engineering.
29. Stigler, S. [1986]: The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty Before 1900, Harvard: Harvard University Press.
30. van Fraassen, B. [1989]: Laws and Symmetry, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
31. Visscher, P., Medland, S., Ferreira, M., Morley, K., Zhu, G., Cornes, B., Montgomery, G. and Martin, N. [2006]: 'Assumption-Free Estimation of Heritability from Genome-Wide Identity-by-Descent Sharing between Full Siblings', PLoS Genetics, 2, p. e41.
32. Wilson, E. and Hilferty, M. [1929]: 'Note on C.S. Peirce's Experimental Discussion of the Law of Errors', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 15, p. 120.
33. Zhao, W., Serpedin, E. and Dougherty, E. [2008]: 'Inferring Connectivity of Genetic Regulatory Networks using Information-Theoretic Criteria', IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, 5, pp. 262-74.