Two years ago, I described walking, each week, past the tombs of Thomas Bayes and Richard Price in the nonconformist burial ground at Bunhill Fields in London, and wondered about the extent to which Bayes’ Theorem, or its interpretation as the foundation of Bayesian statistics, was actually due to Price.
The current issue of Significance contains an article by Martyn Hooper on precisely this topic. Read it!
Hooper ends by quoting from the book by S. B. McGrayne on Bayes’ Theorem:
By modern standards, we should refer to the Bayes–Price rule. Price discovered Bayes’ work, recognized its importance, corrected it, contributed to the article, and found a use for it [estimating the probability of the existence of God]. The modern convention of employing Bayes’ name alone is unfair but so entrenched that anything else makes little sense.
awesome article to read.
Today, there are workmen doing maintenance on Richard Price’s tomb in Bunhill Fields.