RONALD AYLMER FISHER AND AGRONOMY

Abstract

Statistical inference, as we perceive the subject nowadays, is a byproduct of the 20th century. The generalized use of probabilistic models in the experimental sciences is a consequence of the crisis in Physics by the end of the 19th century and of the simultaneous appearance of tentative paradigms in Biology. The fundamental role of Statistics in current scientific methodology had its genesis in the confluence of Darwin and Mendel´s works in Biology, as well as in the collapse of Newton’s paradigm. Doubtless the emphasis, often exaggerated, that we now place in the statistical analysis of experimental data derives, in good measure, from the work of Ronald Aylmer Fisher (London, 1890- Adelaide, 1962), the most distinguished statistician in the history of scientific inference. In this essay it is intended to situate the development of Fisher’s ideas in the context of the scientific thought at the beginning of the twentieth century, highlighting the fact that his vast contribution to the experimental methods not only was produced in an agronomical environment, but was also a consequence of such environment.