Between Probability and Certainty

Between Probability and Certainty PDF Author: Martin Smith
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191071633
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Martin Smith explores a question central to philosophy--namely, what does it take for a belief to be justified or rational? According to a widespread view, whether one has justification for believing a proposition is determined by how probable that proposition is, given one's evidence. In the present book this view is rejected and replaced with another: in order for one to have justification for believing a proposition, one's evidence must normically support it--roughly, one's evidence must make the falsity of that proposition abnormal in the sense of calling for special, independent explanation. This conception of justification bears upon a range of topics in epistemology and beyond, including the relation between justification and knowledge, the force of statistical evidence, the problem of scepticism, the lottery and preface paradoxes, the viability of multiple premise closure, the internalist/externalist debate, the psychology of human reasoning, and the relation between belief and degrees of belief. Ultimately, this way of looking at justification guides us to a new, unfamiliar picture of how we should respond to our evidence and manage our own fallibility. This picture is developed here.

Between Probability and Certainty

Between Probability and Certainty PDF Author: Martin Smith
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191071633
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Martin Smith explores a question central to philosophy--namely, what does it take for a belief to be justified or rational? According to a widespread view, whether one has justification for believing a proposition is determined by how probable that proposition is, given one's evidence. In the present book this view is rejected and replaced with another: in order for one to have justification for believing a proposition, one's evidence must normically support it--roughly, one's evidence must make the falsity of that proposition abnormal in the sense of calling for special, independent explanation. This conception of justification bears upon a range of topics in epistemology and beyond, including the relation between justification and knowledge, the force of statistical evidence, the problem of scepticism, the lottery and preface paradoxes, the viability of multiple premise closure, the internalist/externalist debate, the psychology of human reasoning, and the relation between belief and degrees of belief. Ultimately, this way of looking at justification guides us to a new, unfamiliar picture of how we should respond to our evidence and manage our own fallibility. This picture is developed here.

Between Certainty and Uncertainty

Between Certainty and Uncertainty PDF Author: Ludomir M. Laudański
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 364225697X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
„Between Certainty & Uncertainty” is a one-of–a-kind short course on statistics for students, engineers and researchers. It is a fascinating introduction to statistics and probability with notes on historical origins and 80 illustrative numerical examples organized in the five units: · Chapter 1 Descriptive Statistics: Compressing small samples, basic averages - mean and variance, their main properties including God’s proof; linear transformations and z-scored statistics . · Chapter 2 Grouped data: Udny Yule’s concept of qualitative and quantitative variables. Grouping these two kinds of data. Graphical tools. Combinatorial rules and qualitative variables. Designing frequency histogram. Direct and coded evaluation of quantitative data. Significance of percentiles. · Chapter 3 Regression and correlation: Geometrical distance and equivalent distances in two orthogonal directions as a prerequisite to the concept of two regression lines. Misleading in interpreting two regression lines. Derivation of the two regression lines. Was Hubble right? Houbolt’s cloud. What in fact measures the correlation coefficient? · Chapter 4 Binomial distribution: Middle ages origins of the binomials; figurate numbers and combinatorial rules. Pascal’s Arithmetical Triangle. Bernoulli’s or Poisson Trials? John Arbuthnot curing binomials. How Newton taught S. Pepys probability. Jacob Bernoulli’s Weak Law of Large Numbers and others. · Chapter 5 Normal distribution and binomial heritage – Tables of the normal distribution. Abraham de Moivre and the second theorem of de Moivre-Laplace. · Chapter 1 Descriptive Statistics: Compressing small samples, basic averages - mean and variance, their main properties including God’s proof; linear transformations and z-scored statistics . · Chapter 2 Grouped data: Udny Yule’s concept of qualitative and quantitative variables. Grouping these two kinds of data. Graphical tools. Combinatorial rules and qualitative variables. Designing frequency histogram. Direct and coded evaluation of quantitative data. Significance of percentiles. · Chapter 3 Regression and correlation: Geometrical distance and equivalent distances in two orthogonal directions as a prerequisite to the concept of two regression lines. Misleading in interpreting two regression lines. Derivation of the two regression lines. Was Hubble right? Houbolt’s cloud. What in fact measures the correlation coefficient? · Chapter 4 Binomial distribution: Middle ages origins of the binomials; figurate numbers and combinatorial rules. Pascal’s Arithmetical Triangle. Bernoulli’s or Poisson Trials? John Arbuthnot curing binomials. How Newton taught S. Pepys probability. Jacob Bernoulli’s Weak Law of Large Numbers and others. · Chapter 5 Normal distribution and binomial heritage – Tables of the normal distribution. Abraham de Moivre and the second theorem of de Moivre-Laplace. · Chapter 5 Normal distribution and binomial heritage – Tables of the normal distribution. Abraham de Moivre and the second theorem of de Moivre-Laplace.

The Search for Certainty

The Search for Certainty PDF Author: Krzysztof Burdzy
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814273716
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
This volume represents a radical departure from the current philosophical duopoly in the area of foundations of probability, that is, the frequency and subjective theories. One of the main new ideas is a set of scientific laws of probability. The new laws are simple, intuitive and, last but not least, they agree well with the contents of current textbooks on probability. Another major new claim is that the OC frequency statisticsOCO has nothing in common with the OC frequency philosophy of probability, OCO contrary to popular belief. Similarly, contrary to the general perception, the OC Bayesian statisticsOCO shares nothing in common with the OC subjective philosophy of probability.OCO The book is non-partisan on the scientific side OCo it is supportive of both frequency statistics and Bayesian statistics. On the other hand, it contains well-documented and thoroughly-explained criticisms of the frequency and subjective philosophies of probability. Short reviews of other philosophical theories of probability and basic mathematical methods of probability and statistics are incorporated. The book includes substantial chapters on decision theory and teaching probability, and it is easily accessible to the general audience

Probability and Certainty

Probability and Certainty PDF Author: Emile Borel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Certainty
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description


Probability and Certainty in Seventeenth-century England

Probability and Certainty in Seventeenth-century England PDF Author: Barbara J. Shapiro
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780691053790
Category : England
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
The Description for this book, Probability and Certainty in Seventeenth-Century England: A Study of the Relationships Between National Science, Religion, History, Law, and Literature, will be forthcoming.

The Oxford Handbook of Behavioral Economics and the Law

The Oxford Handbook of Behavioral Economics and the Law PDF Author: Eyal Zamir
Publisher: Oxford Handbooks
ISBN: 0199945470
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 841

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Book Description
'The Oxford Handbook of Behavioral Economics and Law' brings together leading scholars of law, psychology, and economics to provide an up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of this field of research, including its strengths and limitations as well as a forecast of its future development. Its twenty-nine chapters are organized into four parts.

Everyday Sociology Reader

Everyday Sociology Reader PDF Author: Karen Sternheimer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780393419481
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Innovative readings and blog posts show how sociology can help us understand everyday life.

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.

Subjective Probability

Subjective Probability PDF Author: Richard Jeffrey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521536684
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
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After Certainty

After Certainty PDF Author: Robert Pasnau
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192521934
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
No part of philosophy is as disconnected from its history as is epistemology. After Certainty offers a reconstruction of that history, understood as a series of changing expectations about the cognitive ideal that beings such as us might hope to achieve in a world such as this. The story begins with Aristotle and then looks at how his epistemic program was developed through later antiquity and into the Middle Ages, before being dramatically reformulated in the seventeenth century. In watching these debates unfold over the centuries, one sees why epistemology has traditionally been embedded within a much larger sphere of concerns about human nature and the reality of the world we live in. It ultimately becomes clear why epistemology today has become a much narrower and specialized field, concerned with the conditions under which it is true to say, that someone knows something. Based on a series of lectures given at Oxford University, Robert Pasnau's book ranges widely over the history of philosophy, and examines in some detail the rise of science as an autonomous discipline. Ultimately Pasnau argues that we may have no good reasons to suppose ourselves capable of achieving even the most minimal standards for knowledge, and the final chapter concludes with a discussion of faith and hope.