Re:Understanding Epidemiology Models
by mattkrause on Thursday June 04, 2020 @03:42PM
(#23420876)
That's the nature of a textbook though, not the field.
Most textbooks present a pretty definitive take on a topic, if only for pedagogical reasons. You might get a few well-defined controversies, like various theories of matter in chemistry, or frequentist vs. Bayesians in a stats book. Even there though, that debate is often resolved, one way or the other, by the end of the first chapter.
The actual back-and-forth in most fields happens in journal articles and conference presentations instead.
I am purposefully not "self-assured" but rather, looking into the topic. As a learner, why would I not question the contents I found?
The textbook leaves no room for alternative -- in fact, the tone and presentation of the textbook is that the topic is settled, and the math is "best".