Probabilities, Laws, and Structures

Probabilities, Laws, and Structures PDF Author: Dennis Dieks
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400730306
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 505

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Book Description
This volume, the third in this Springer series, contains selected papers from the four workshops organized by the ESF Research Networking Programme "The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective" (PSE) in 2010: Pluralism in the Foundations of Statistics Points of Contact between the Philosophy of Physics and the Philosophy of Biology The Debate on Mathematical Modeling in the Social Sciences Historical Debates about Logic, Probability and Statistics The volume is accordingly divided in four sections, each of them containing papers coming from the workshop focussing on one of these themes. While the programme's core topic for the year 2010 was probability and statistics, the organizers of the workshops embraced the opportunity of building bridges to more or less closely connected issues in general philosophy of science, philosophy of physics and philosophy of the special sciences. However, papers that analyze the concept of probability for various philosophical purposes are clearly a major theme in this volume, as it was in the previous volumes of the same series. This reflects the impressive productivity of probabilistic approaches in the philosophy of science, which form an important part of what has become known as formal epistemology - although, of course, there are non-probabilistic approaches in formal epistemology as well. It is probably fair to say that Europe has been particularly strong in this area of philosophy in recent years.​

Probabilities, Laws, and Structures

Probabilities, Laws, and Structures PDF Author: Dennis Dieks
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400730306
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 505

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume, the third in this Springer series, contains selected papers from the four workshops organized by the ESF Research Networking Programme "The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective" (PSE) in 2010: Pluralism in the Foundations of Statistics Points of Contact between the Philosophy of Physics and the Philosophy of Biology The Debate on Mathematical Modeling in the Social Sciences Historical Debates about Logic, Probability and Statistics The volume is accordingly divided in four sections, each of them containing papers coming from the workshop focussing on one of these themes. While the programme's core topic for the year 2010 was probability and statistics, the organizers of the workshops embraced the opportunity of building bridges to more or less closely connected issues in general philosophy of science, philosophy of physics and philosophy of the special sciences. However, papers that analyze the concept of probability for various philosophical purposes are clearly a major theme in this volume, as it was in the previous volumes of the same series. This reflects the impressive productivity of probabilistic approaches in the philosophy of science, which form an important part of what has become known as formal epistemology - although, of course, there are non-probabilistic approaches in formal epistemology as well. It is probably fair to say that Europe has been particularly strong in this area of philosophy in recent years.​

Tychomancy

Tychomancy PDF Author: Michael Strevens
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674076028
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Tychomancy—meaning “the divination of chances”—presents a set of rules for inferring the physical probabilities of outcomes from the causal or dynamic properties of the systems that produce them. Probabilities revealed by the rules are wide-ranging: they include the probability of getting a 5 on a die roll, the probability distributions found in statistical physics, and the probabilities that underlie many prima facie judgments about fitness in evolutionary biology. Michael Strevens makes three claims about the rules. First, they are reliable. Second, they are known, though not fully consciously, to all human beings: they constitute a key part of the physical intuition that allows us to navigate around the world safely in the absence of formal scientific knowledge. Third, they have played a crucial but unrecognized role in several major scientific innovations. A large part of Tychomancy is devoted to this historical role for probability inference rules. Strevens first analyzes James Clerk Maxwell’s extraordinary, apparently a priori, deduction of the molecular velocity distribution in gases, which launched statistical physics. Maxwell did not derive his distribution from logic alone, Strevens proposes, but rather from probabilistic knowledge common to all human beings, even infants as young as six months old. Strevens then turns to Darwin’s theory of natural selection, the statistics of measurement, and the creation of models of complex systems, contending in each case that these elements of science could not have emerged when or how they did without the ability to “eyeball” the values of physical probabilities.

Probability on Algebraic Structures

Probability on Algebraic Structures PDF Author: Gregory Budzban
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 0821820273
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
This volume presents results from an AMS Special Session held on the topic in Gainesville (FL). Papers included are written by an international group of well-known specialists who offer an important cross-section of current work in the field. In addition there are two expository papers that provide an avenue for non-specialists to comprehend problems in this area. The breadth of research in this area is evident by the variety of articles presented in the volume. Results concern probability on Lie groups and general locally compact groups. Generalizations of groups appear as hypergroups, abstract semigroups, and semigroups of matrices. Work on symmetric cones is included. Lastly, there are a number of articles on the current progress in constructing stochastic processes on quantum groups.

Probability

Probability PDF Author: Rick Durrett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 113949113X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This classic introduction to probability theory for beginning graduate students covers laws of large numbers, central limit theorems, random walks, martingales, Markov chains, ergodic theorems, and Brownian motion. It is a comprehensive treatment concentrating on the results that are the most useful for applications. Its philosophy is that the best way to learn probability is to see it in action, so there are 200 examples and 450 problems. The fourth edition begins with a short chapter on measure theory to orient readers new to the subject.

Introduction to Probability

Introduction to Probability PDF Author: David F. Anderson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110824498X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
This classroom-tested textbook is an introduction to probability theory, with the right balance between mathematical precision, probabilistic intuition, and concrete applications. Introduction to Probability covers the material precisely, while avoiding excessive technical details. After introducing the basic vocabulary of randomness, including events, probabilities, and random variables, the text offers the reader a first glimpse of the major theorems of the subject: the law of large numbers and the central limit theorem. The important probability distributions are introduced organically as they arise from applications. The discrete and continuous sides of probability are treated together to emphasize their similarities. Intended for students with a calculus background, the text teaches not only the nuts and bolts of probability theory and how to solve specific problems, but also why the methods of solution work.

The Place of Probability in Science

The Place of Probability in Science PDF Author: Ellery Eells
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048136156
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Science aims at the discovery of general principles of special kinds that are applicable for the explanation and prediction of the phenomena of the world in the form of theories and laws. When the phenomena themselves happen to be general, the principlesinvolved assume the form of theories; and when they are p- ticular, they assume the form of general laws. Theories themselves are sets of laws and de nitions that apply to a common domain, which makes laws indispensable to science. Understanding science thus depends upon understanding the nature of theories and laws, the logical structure of explanations and predictions based upon them, and the principles of inference and decision that apply to theories and laws. Laws and theories can differ in their form as well as in their content. The laws of quantum mechanics are indeterministic (or probabilistic), for example, while those of classical mechanics are deterministic (or universal) instead. The history of science re ects an increasing role for probabilities as properties of the world but also as measures of evidential support and as degrees of subjective belief. Our purpose is to clarify and illuminate the place of probability in science.

Logic and Random Structures

Logic and Random Structures PDF Author: Ravi Bopu Boppana
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 0821805789
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
The articles in this volume are based on lectures presented at the Workshop on Logic and Random Structures, held on November 5 through 7, 1995, at the DIMACS Center at Rutgers, New Jersey. There were two main themes in the workshop. The first was concerned with classes of random finite structures, and probabilities of properties definable in these classes. The second was the complexity of circuits and sentences.

Probabilistic Methods in Structural Engineering

Probabilistic Methods in Structural Engineering PDF Author: Guiliano Augusti
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1482267454
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 585

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Book Description
This book presents the most important applications of probablistic and statistical approaches and procedures to structural engineering.

EPSA11 Perspectives and Foundational Problems in Philosophy of Science

EPSA11 Perspectives and Foundational Problems in Philosophy of Science PDF Author: Vassilios Karakostas
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3319013068
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 489

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Book Description
This book contains a selection of original conference papers covering all major fields in the philosophy of science, that have been organized into themes. The first section of this volume begins with the formal philosophy of science, moves on to idealization, representation and explanation and then finishes with realism, anti-realism and special science laws. The second section covers the philosophy of the physical sciences, looking at quantum mechanics, spontaneous symmetry breaking, the philosophy of space and time, linking physics and metaphysics and the philosophy of chemistry. Further themed sections cover the philosophies of the life sciences, the cognitive sciences and the social sciences. Readers will find that this volume provides an excellent overview of the state of the art in the philosophy of science, as practiced in different European countries. ​

Introduction to Probability

Introduction to Probability PDF Author: Joseph K. Blitzstein
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1466575573
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 599

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Book Description
Developed from celebrated Harvard statistics lectures, Introduction to Probability provides essential language and tools for understanding statistics, randomness, and uncertainty. The book explores a wide variety of applications and examples, ranging from coincidences and paradoxes to Google PageRank and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). Additional application areas explored include genetics, medicine, computer science, and information theory. The print book version includes a code that provides free access to an eBook version. The authors present the material in an accessible style and motivate concepts using real-world examples. Throughout, they use stories to uncover connections between the fundamental distributions in statistics and conditioning to reduce complicated problems to manageable pieces. The book includes many intuitive explanations, diagrams, and practice problems. Each chapter ends with a section showing how to perform relevant simulations and calculations in R, a free statistical software environment.