| Description |
1 online resource (xviii, 423 pages) : illustrations |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Notes |
"Originally ... a doctoral dissertation submitted to the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University"--Preface |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 387-412) and index |
| Notes |
English |
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Print version record |
| Subject |
Probabilities -- History -- 19th century
|
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Science -- History -- 19th century
|
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SCIENCE / History
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Probabilities.
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Science.
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| Genre/Form |
History.
|
| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
0691084971 |
|
9780691084978 |
|
9780691006444 |
|
069100644X |
|
9781400844227 |
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1400844223 |
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