Author: Paul Humphreys
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400860768
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 181
Book Description
This book provides a post-positivist theory of deterministic and probabilistic causality that supports both quantitative and qualitative explanations. Features of particular interest include the ability to provide true explanations in contexts where our knowledge is incomplete, a systematic interpretation of causal modeling techniques in the social sciences, and a direct realist view of causal relations that is compatible with a liberal empiricism. The book should be of wide interest to both philosophers and scientists. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
The Chances of Explanation
Author: Paul Humphreys
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400860768
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 181
Book Description
This book provides a post-positivist theory of deterministic and probabilistic causality that supports both quantitative and qualitative explanations. Features of particular interest include the ability to provide true explanations in contexts where our knowledge is incomplete, a systematic interpretation of causal modeling techniques in the social sciences, and a direct realist view of causal relations that is compatible with a liberal empiricism. The book should be of wide interest to both philosophers and scientists. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400860768
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 181
Book Description
This book provides a post-positivist theory of deterministic and probabilistic causality that supports both quantitative and qualitative explanations. Features of particular interest include the ability to provide true explanations in contexts where our knowledge is incomplete, a systematic interpretation of causal modeling techniques in the social sciences, and a direct realist view of causal relations that is compatible with a liberal empiricism. The book should be of wide interest to both philosophers and scientists. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Causality and Explanation
Author: Wesley C. Salmon
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198026822
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 454
Book Description
For over two decades Wesley Salmon has helped to shape the course of debate in philosophy of science. He is a major contributor to the philosophical discussion of problems associated with causality and the author of two influential books on scientific explanation. This long-awaited volume collects twenty- six of Salmon's essays, including seven that have never before been published and others difficult to find. Part I comprises five introductory essays that presuppose no formal training in philosophy of science and form a background for subsequent essays. Parts II and III contain Salmon's seminal work on scientific explanation and causality. Part IV offers survey articles that feature advanced material but remain accessible to those outside philosophy of science. Essays in Part V address specific issues in particular scientific disciplines, namely, archaeology and anthropology, astrophysics and cosmology, and physics. Clear, compelling, and essential, this volume offers a superb introduction to philosophy of science for nonspecialists and belongs on the bookshelf of all who carry out work in this exciting field. Wesley Salmon is renowned for his seminal contributions to the philosophy of science. He has powerfully and permanently shaped discussion of such issues as lawlike and probabilistic explanation and the interrelation of explanatory notions to causal notions. This unique volume brings together twenty-six of his essays on subjects related to causality and explanation, written over the period 1971-1995. Six of the essays have never been published before and many others have only appeared in obscure venues. The volume includes a section of accessible introductory pieces, as well as more advanced and technical pieces, and will make essential work in the philosophy of science readily available to both scholars and students.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198026822
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 454
Book Description
For over two decades Wesley Salmon has helped to shape the course of debate in philosophy of science. He is a major contributor to the philosophical discussion of problems associated with causality and the author of two influential books on scientific explanation. This long-awaited volume collects twenty- six of Salmon's essays, including seven that have never before been published and others difficult to find. Part I comprises five introductory essays that presuppose no formal training in philosophy of science and form a background for subsequent essays. Parts II and III contain Salmon's seminal work on scientific explanation and causality. Part IV offers survey articles that feature advanced material but remain accessible to those outside philosophy of science. Essays in Part V address specific issues in particular scientific disciplines, namely, archaeology and anthropology, astrophysics and cosmology, and physics. Clear, compelling, and essential, this volume offers a superb introduction to philosophy of science for nonspecialists and belongs on the bookshelf of all who carry out work in this exciting field. Wesley Salmon is renowned for his seminal contributions to the philosophy of science. He has powerfully and permanently shaped discussion of such issues as lawlike and probabilistic explanation and the interrelation of explanatory notions to causal notions. This unique volume brings together twenty-six of his essays on subjects related to causality and explanation, written over the period 1971-1995. Six of the essays have never been published before and many others have only appeared in obscure venues. The volume includes a section of accessible introductory pieces, as well as more advanced and technical pieces, and will make essential work in the philosophy of science readily available to both scholars and students.
The Book of Why
Author: Judea Pearl
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465097618
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 432
Book Description
A Turing Award-winning computer scientist and statistician shows how understanding causality has revolutionized science and will revolutionize artificial intelligence "Correlation is not causation." This mantra, chanted by scientists for more than a century, has led to a virtual prohibition on causal talk. Today, that taboo is dead. The causal revolution, instigated by Judea Pearl and his colleagues, has cut through a century of confusion and established causality -- the study of cause and effect -- on a firm scientific basis. His work explains how we can know easy things, like whether it was rain or a sprinkler that made a sidewalk wet; and how to answer hard questions, like whether a drug cured an illness. Pearl's work enables us to know not just whether one thing causes another: it lets us explore the world that is and the worlds that could have been. It shows us the essence of human thought and key to artificial intelligence. Anyone who wants to understand either needs The Book of Why.
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465097618
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 432
Book Description
A Turing Award-winning computer scientist and statistician shows how understanding causality has revolutionized science and will revolutionize artificial intelligence "Correlation is not causation." This mantra, chanted by scientists for more than a century, has led to a virtual prohibition on causal talk. Today, that taboo is dead. The causal revolution, instigated by Judea Pearl and his colleagues, has cut through a century of confusion and established causality -- the study of cause and effect -- on a firm scientific basis. His work explains how we can know easy things, like whether it was rain or a sprinkler that made a sidewalk wet; and how to answer hard questions, like whether a drug cured an illness. Pearl's work enables us to know not just whether one thing causes another: it lets us explore the world that is and the worlds that could have been. It shows us the essence of human thought and key to artificial intelligence. Anyone who wants to understand either needs The Book of Why.
What are the Chances of That?
Author: Andrew C. A. Elliott
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192639927
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description
Chance fills every day of our lives and affects every decision we make. Yet, for something woven so closely into the fabric of our being, we are not very good at thinking about uncertainty and risk. In this lively and engaging book, Andrew C. A. Elliott asks why this is so. He picks at the threads and, in showing how our world is built on probability rather than certainty, he identifies five obstacles to thinking about uncertainty that confuse us time after time. Elliott takes us into the casino, but this is not an invitation to gamble. He looks at financial markets, but this is not a guide to investment. There's discussion of health, but this is not a medical book. He touches on genetics and evolution, and music-making, and writing, because chance is at work there too. Entering many different fields, What are the Chances of That? is always following the trail of chance and randomness. One purpose of the book is to go cross-country, to show that there are connected ways of thinking that disrespect boundaries and cut across the domains of finance, and gambling, and genetics, and public health, and creativity. Through it, one visits the vantage points that give a broad view of the landscape and sees how these different areas of life and knowledge are connected - through chance. What are the Chances of That? discusses chance and the importance of understanding how it affects our lives. It goes beyond a mathematical approach to the subject, showing how our thinking about chance and uncertainty has been shaped by history and culture, and only relatively recently by the mathematical theory of probability. In considering how we think about uncertainty, Elliott proposes five “dualities” that encapsulate many of the ambiguities that arise.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192639927
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description
Chance fills every day of our lives and affects every decision we make. Yet, for something woven so closely into the fabric of our being, we are not very good at thinking about uncertainty and risk. In this lively and engaging book, Andrew C. A. Elliott asks why this is so. He picks at the threads and, in showing how our world is built on probability rather than certainty, he identifies five obstacles to thinking about uncertainty that confuse us time after time. Elliott takes us into the casino, but this is not an invitation to gamble. He looks at financial markets, but this is not a guide to investment. There's discussion of health, but this is not a medical book. He touches on genetics and evolution, and music-making, and writing, because chance is at work there too. Entering many different fields, What are the Chances of That? is always following the trail of chance and randomness. One purpose of the book is to go cross-country, to show that there are connected ways of thinking that disrespect boundaries and cut across the domains of finance, and gambling, and genetics, and public health, and creativity. Through it, one visits the vantage points that give a broad view of the landscape and sees how these different areas of life and knowledge are connected - through chance. What are the Chances of That? discusses chance and the importance of understanding how it affects our lives. It goes beyond a mathematical approach to the subject, showing how our thinking about chance and uncertainty has been shaped by history and culture, and only relatively recently by the mathematical theory of probability. In considering how we think about uncertainty, Elliott proposes five “dualities” that encapsulate many of the ambiguities that arise.
Interpretable Machine Learning
Author: Christoph Molnar
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0244768528
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
This book is about making machine learning models and their decisions interpretable. After exploring the concepts of interpretability, you will learn about simple, interpretable models such as decision trees, decision rules and linear regression. Later chapters focus on general model-agnostic methods for interpreting black box models like feature importance and accumulated local effects and explaining individual predictions with Shapley values and LIME. All interpretation methods are explained in depth and discussed critically. How do they work under the hood? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How can their outputs be interpreted? This book will enable you to select and correctly apply the interpretation method that is most suitable for your machine learning project.
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0244768528
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
This book is about making machine learning models and their decisions interpretable. After exploring the concepts of interpretability, you will learn about simple, interpretable models such as decision trees, decision rules and linear regression. Later chapters focus on general model-agnostic methods for interpreting black box models like feature importance and accumulated local effects and explaining individual predictions with Shapley values and LIME. All interpretation methods are explained in depth and discussed critically. How do they work under the hood? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How can their outputs be interpreted? This book will enable you to select and correctly apply the interpretation method that is most suitable for your machine learning project.
Rethinking Explanation
Author: Johannes Persson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402055811
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
The nature of scientific explanation has been an important topic in philosophy of science for many years. This book highlights some of the conceptual problems that still need to be solved and points out a number of fresh philosophical ideas to explore.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402055811
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
The nature of scientific explanation has been an important topic in philosophy of science for many years. This book highlights some of the conceptual problems that still need to be solved and points out a number of fresh philosophical ideas to explore.
Causation and Explanation
Author: Joseph Keim Campbell
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262033631
Category : Causation
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
Leading scholars discuss the development and application of theories of causation and explanation, offering a state-of-the-art view of current work on these two topics.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262033631
Category : Causation
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
Leading scholars discuss the development and application of theories of causation and explanation, offering a state-of-the-art view of current work on these two topics.
Explanation, Prediction, and Confirmation
Author: Dennis Dieks
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400711808
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 525
Book Description
This volume, the second in the Springer series Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective, contains selected papers from the workshops organised by the ESF Research Networking Programme PSE (The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective) in 2009. Five general topics are addressed: 1. Formal Methods in the Philosophy of Science; 2. Philosophy of the Natural and Life Sciences; 3. Philosophy of the Cultural and Social Sciences; 4. Philosophy of the Physical Sciences; 5. History of the Philosophy of Science. This volume is accordingly divided in five sections, each section containing papers coming from the meetings focussing on one of these five themes. However, these sections are not completely independent and detached from each other. For example, an important connecting thread running through a substantial number of papers in this volume is the concept of probability: probability plays a central role in present-day discussions in formal epistemology, in the philosophy of the physical sciences, and in general methodological debates---it is central in discussions concerning explanation, prediction and confirmation. The volume thus also attempts to represent the intellectual exchange between the various fields in the philosophy of science that was central in the ESF workshops.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400711808
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 525
Book Description
This volume, the second in the Springer series Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective, contains selected papers from the workshops organised by the ESF Research Networking Programme PSE (The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective) in 2009. Five general topics are addressed: 1. Formal Methods in the Philosophy of Science; 2. Philosophy of the Natural and Life Sciences; 3. Philosophy of the Cultural and Social Sciences; 4. Philosophy of the Physical Sciences; 5. History of the Philosophy of Science. This volume is accordingly divided in five sections, each section containing papers coming from the meetings focussing on one of these five themes. However, these sections are not completely independent and detached from each other. For example, an important connecting thread running through a substantial number of papers in this volume is the concept of probability: probability plays a central role in present-day discussions in formal epistemology, in the philosophy of the physical sciences, and in general methodological debates---it is central in discussions concerning explanation, prediction and confirmation. The volume thus also attempts to represent the intellectual exchange between the various fields in the philosophy of science that was central in the ESF workshops.
Parapsychology
Author: David Groome
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134634900
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
Containing contributions from some of the leading figures in Europe on the paranormal, `Parapsychology' challenges and provokes readers with an up-to-the-minute examination of some of the most puzzling phenomena in psychology. Unlike previous works, the current volume invites readers to step into the shoes of scientists (believers and sceptics alike) to see not only how they must approach the array of weird and wonderful events that demand their attention, but also the tools that they use to do their job. An range of intriguing topics is considered including; dream telepathy, near death experiences, alien abductions, belief in astrology, placebo effects and awareness during anaesthesia and in comas. In addition readers have the opportunity to engage in experiments with the authors. Exploring these and other areas, the book bridges the gap between traditional psychology and its so called fringe areas, providing accessible accounts of how science works on the border of its last frontier: the human mind. `Parapsychology' is for readers from a variety of backgrounds; professionals in the field, students, lay readers and anyone who wants to understand what the paranormal can tell us about ourselves as we set out into 21st century. A variety of viewpoints are on offer, with the emphasis on the reader to make their own mind up. Prepared to be unsettled...
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134634900
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
Containing contributions from some of the leading figures in Europe on the paranormal, `Parapsychology' challenges and provokes readers with an up-to-the-minute examination of some of the most puzzling phenomena in psychology. Unlike previous works, the current volume invites readers to step into the shoes of scientists (believers and sceptics alike) to see not only how they must approach the array of weird and wonderful events that demand their attention, but also the tools that they use to do their job. An range of intriguing topics is considered including; dream telepathy, near death experiences, alien abductions, belief in astrology, placebo effects and awareness during anaesthesia and in comas. In addition readers have the opportunity to engage in experiments with the authors. Exploring these and other areas, the book bridges the gap between traditional psychology and its so called fringe areas, providing accessible accounts of how science works on the border of its last frontier: the human mind. `Parapsychology' is for readers from a variety of backgrounds; professionals in the field, students, lay readers and anyone who wants to understand what the paranormal can tell us about ourselves as we set out into 21st century. A variety of viewpoints are on offer, with the emphasis on the reader to make their own mind up. Prepared to be unsettled...
The G.O.D. Experiments
Author: Gary E. Schwartz
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743477413
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
Can science lead to God? Esteemed scientist and theoretician Dr. Gary Schwartz tackles this question as he takes readers on a journey of discovery to the miraculous place where science and spirituality meet. Illustrations throughout.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743477413
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
Can science lead to God? Esteemed scientist and theoretician Dr. Gary Schwartz tackles this question as he takes readers on a journey of discovery to the miraculous place where science and spirituality meet. Illustrations throughout.