• DOI:10.1126/science.156.3781.1456
• Corpus ID: 44708120

R. A. Fisher (1890—1962): An Appreciation

@article{Neyman1967RAF,
  title={R. A. Fisher (1890—1962): An Appreciation},
  author={Jerzy Neyman},
  journal={Science},
  year={1967},
  volume={156},
  pages={1456 - 1460}
}

• J. Neyman
• Published 16 June 1967
• History
• Science

typifying Cambridge, the wonderful melting pot of ideas, where astronomers rub shoulders with historians, neurophysiologists with lawyers, and mathematicians with geneticists, statisticians, and others. The appraisal of Fisher's scholarly activity should, then, be made from at least three points of view, the point of view of statistics, that of mathematics, and that of empirical science. As a statistician, R. A. Fisher appears to me to be a direct descendant of Karl Pearson, with side influences of G. Udny Yule and of F. Y. Edgeworth. From the point of view of mathematics, the situation is more complicated. Fisher's early days at Cambridge were, roughly, on the dividing line between two epochs, the earlier epoch of manipulative skills and the subsequent period of conceptual developments. Fisher seems to have belonged to the epoch of manipulative skills, in which he was supreme. Also, I remember his declaring that the change symbolized by the names of Hardy and Littlewood was a disaster in English mathematics. Nevertheless, some of the most important writings of Fisher appear to be influenced by what was then the incipient era of conceptual mathematics. The part of Fisher's work that I admire most is one that must have resulted from the general Cambridge atmosphere, from his contacts with representatives of empirical sciences, astronomers (in particular with A. S. Eddington), geologists, and biologists. Here I have in mind not only Fisher's direct contributions to science, especially to population genetics, but also Fisher's actual founding of an entirely novel discipline related to scientific research which I like to call the theory of experimentation. Even though Fisher's