Judea Pearl rips Frank Harrell's view of science: worse than 'temperature is a thermometer'
yudapearl · x · 2026-11-16
Judea Pearl waded into an ongoing methodological dispute over the nature of scientific inquiry. After @ildiazm criticized statistician Frank Harrell (@f2harrell) for "confusing what a thing is with the instruments we use to measure it" — "like saying temperature is a thermometer" — Pearl escalated, calling Harrell's view of scientific inquiry "worse": as if temperature were merely what an instrument that "members of our cult call a thermometer" reads. The spat continues Pearl and Harrell's long-running disagreement over statistics vs. causal modeling methodology.
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