Bayes' rule en · PROPN
Etymology
See Bayes' theorem.
Meanings
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Synonym of Bayes' theorem.
Laplace had owned Bayes’ rule in all but name since 1781. The formula, the method, and its masterful utilization all belong to Pierre Simon Laplace. He made probability-based statistics commonplace. By transforming a theory of gambling into practical mathematics, Laplace’s work dominated probability and statistics for a century. “In my mind,” Glenn Shafer of Rutgers University observed, “Laplace did everything, and we just read stuff back into Thomas Bayes. Laplace put it into modern terms. In a sense, everything is Laplacean.” If advancing the world’s knowledge is important, Bayes’ rule should be called Laplace’s rule or, in modern parlance, BPL for Bayes-Price-Laplace. Sadly, a half century of usage forces us to give Bayes’ name to what was really Laplace’s achievement.
2011, Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 32: