Classical probability in the enlightenment / Lorraine Daston.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Daston, Lorraine, 1951-

Contributor:

American Council of Learned Societies.

Series:

ACLS Humanities E-Book.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Probabilities--History--19th century.

Probabilities.

Science--History--19th century.

Science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 423 p. ) ill. ;

Edition:

New ed.

Place of Publication:

1996. Princeton University Press,

Language Note:

English

Summary:

What did it mean to be reasonable in the Age of Reason? Classical probabilists from Jakob Bernouli through Pierre Simon Laplace intended their theory as an answer to this question--as "nothing more at bottom than good sense reduced to a calculus," in Laplace's words. In terms that can be easily grasped by nonmathematicians, Lorraine Daston demonstrates how this view profoundly shaped the internal development of probability theory and defined its applications.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE. The Prehistory of the Classical Interpretation of Probability: Expectation and Evidence

CHAPTER TWO. Expectation and the Reasonable Man

CHAPTER THREE. The Theory and Practice of Risk

CHAPTER FOUR. Associationism. and the Meaning of Probability

CHAPTER FIVE. The Probability of Causes

CHAPTER SIX. Moralizing Mathematics

EPILOGUE. The Decline of the Classical Theory

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages [387]-412.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781400844227

1400844223

OCLC:

1249473329

Publisher Number:

2027/heb09063 hdl