Open AccessSTATISTICAL GRAPHICS: MAPPING THE PATHWAYS OF SCIENCE
Author(s) -
Wainer Howard,
Velleman Paul F.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
ets research report series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.235
H-Index - 5
ISSN - 2330-8516
DOI - 10.1002/j.2333-8504.2000.tb01840.x
Subject(s) - graphics , computer science , determinism , trace (psycholinguistics) , software , statistical analysis , data science , computer graphics (images) , programming language , epistemology , mathematics , linguistics , statistics , philosophy
In this paper we trace the evolution of statistical graphics from its departure from the common noun structure of Cartesian determinism, through William Playfair's revolutionary grammatical shift to graphs as proper nouns and alight on the modern conception of graph as an active participant in the scientific process of discovery. The ubiquitous availability of data, software, and cheap, high‐powered computing when coupled with the broad acceptance of the ideas in Tukey's 1977 treatise on exploratory data analysis has yielded a fundamental change in the way that the role of statistical graphics is thought of within science — as a dynamic partner and guide to the future rather than as a static monument to the discoveries of the past. We commemorate and illustrate this development while pointing readers to the new tools available and provide some indications of their potential.