Posted By:
Gilbert MainesDave, T-Rex and I share similar backgrounds, and I think opinions on mathematics.
Specifically, mathematics is a tool which can help you understand a subject.
I believe that you are with us on this.
Our divergence seems to be on the degree of emphasis which is placed on the model.
You see it every day. A practical guy has about had his fill of a theoretical
guy's correlation coefficients, random effects models and linear regression analyses.
Some of us who are mathematically trained have come to trust in our
dead reckoning above any attempt to reduce the subject to a mathematical computation.
So please temper your arguement which starts out as "Well, Ted, you're wrong",
taking into account the context and perspective which is applicable.
By no means are these statements to be construed as an indication that I feel
that mathematics is to be disregarded. Certainly this input is a valued piece of data
in any analysis, but it is not the analysis.