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Still, social science is possible, and needs a strong empirical component. Even statistical technique may prove useful – from time to time.

(Freedman, 1987, As Others See Us: A Case in Path Analysis, p. 125)

Before we delve into the complexities and details that is the field of applied statistics, we first lightly survey some germane philosophical issues that lay at the heart of where statistics fit in the bigger picture of science. Though this book is primarily about applied statistical modeling, the end‐goal is to use statistical modeling in the context of scientific exploration and discovery. To have an appreciation for how statistics are used in science, one must first have a sense of some essential foundations so that one can situate where statistics finds itself within the larger frame of scientific investigation.