Bayes, Thomas (1701–61)

Thomas Bayes was a Presbyterian minister and mathematician who today is mostly remembered for a discovery in probability theory and statistics which in its general form has come to be referred to as Bayes’ theorem. The application of this theorem to a great many problems in a variety of mathematical and philosophical subdisciplines has given rise to several new solutions and approaches commonly labelled ‘Bayesian’. Bayes’ discovery was posthumously published by Richard Price. During his life, Bayes published only twice, both times anonymously: a tract in natural theology (1731) in answer to a tract by Thomas Balguy, and an introduction to and defence of the theory of fluxions (1736) triggered by the sceptical remarks of George Berkeley.