A Philosophical Guide To Chance

Author : Toby Handfield
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 110701378X
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Philosophical Guide to Chance written by Toby Handfield and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-05 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to the philosophy of chance which challenges realist accounts of chance.

Author : Toby Handfield
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781139341776
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Philosophical Guide to Chance written by Toby Handfield and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It is a commonplace that scientific inquiry makes extensive use of probabilities, many of which seem to be objective chances, describing features of reality that are independent of our minds. Such chances appear to have a number of paradoxical or puzzling features: they appear to be mind-independent facts, but they are intimately connected with rational psychology; they display a temporal asymmetry, but they are supposed to be grounded in physical laws that are time-symmetric; and chances are used to explain and predict frequencies of events, although they cannot be reduced to those frequencies. This book offers an accessible and non-technical introduction to these and other puzzles. Toby Handfield engages with traditional metaphysics and philosophy of science, drawing upon recent work in the foundations of quantum mechanics and thermodynamics to provide a novel account of objective probability that is empirically informed without requiring specialist scientific knowledge"--

Author : Henry Ely Kyburg
Publisher : Open Court Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780812695137
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.35/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Probability is the Very Guide of Life written by Henry Ely Kyburg and published by Open Court Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of philosophical essays looks at various technical problems in the use of probability theory for guidance in practical decisions. This text is intended for those who already have a basic grounding in philosophy, logic and probabilty theory.

Author : Carl Hoefer
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190907436
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Chance in the World written by Carl Hoefer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-13 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Probability has fascinated philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians for hundreds of years. Although the mathematics of probability is, for most applications, clear and uncontroversial, the interpretation of probability statements continues to be fraught with controversy and confusion. What does it mean to say that the probability of some event X occurring is 31%? In the 20th century a consensus emerged that there are at least two legitimate kinds of probability, and correspondingly at least two kinds of possible answers to this question of meaning. Subjective probability, also called 'credence' or 'degree of belief' is a numerical measure of the confidence of some person or some ideal rational agent. Objective probability, or chance, is a fact about how things are in the world. It is this second type of probability with which Carl Hoefer is concerned in this volume, specifically how we can understand the meaning of statements about objective probability. He aims to settle the question of what objective chances are, once and for all, with an account that can meet the demands of philosophers and scientists alike. For Hoefer, chances are constituted by patterns that can be discerned in the events that happen in our world. These patterns are ideally appropriate guides to what credences limited rational agents, such as ourselves, should have in situations of imperfect knowledge. By showing this, Hoefer bridges the gap between subjective probability and chance. In a field where few scholars have given adequate treatment to interpreting statements of chance, Hoefer develops a philosophically rich theory which draws on the disciplines of metaphysics, ontology, and philosophy of science.

Author : Persi Diaconis
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691196397
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Ten Great Ideas about Chance written by Persi Diaconis and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, gamblers and mathematicians transformed the idea of chance from a mystery into the discipline of probability, setting the stage for a series of breakthroughs that enabled or transformed innumerable fields, from gambling, mathematics, statistics, economics, and finance to physics and computer science. This book tells the story of ten great ideas about chance and the thinkers who developed them, tracing the philosophical implications of these ideas as well as their mathematical impact.

Author : Ian Hacking
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521388849
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Taming of Chance written by Ian Hacking and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1990-08-31 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book combines detailed scientific historical research with characteristic philosophic breadth and verve.

Author : Michael Cholbi
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691232733
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Grief written by Michael Cholbi and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2024-01-16 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An engaging and illuminating exploration of grief—and why, despite its intense pain, it can also help us grow Experiencing grief at the death of a person we love or who matters to us—as universal as it is painful—is central to the human condition. Surprisingly, however, philosophers have rarely examined grief in any depth. In Grief, Michael Cholbi presents a groundbreaking philosophical exploration of this complex emotional event, offering valuable new insights about what grief is, whom we grieve, and how grief can ultimately lead us to a richer self-understanding and a fuller realization of our humanity. Drawing on psychology, social science, and literature as well as philosophy, Cholbi explains that we grieve for the loss of those in whom our identities are invested, including people we don't know personally but cherish anyway, such as public figures. Their deaths not only deprive us of worthwhile experiences; they also disrupt our commitments and values. Yet grief is something we should embrace rather than avoid, an important part of a good and meaningful life. The key to understanding this paradox, Cholbi says, is that grief offers us a unique and powerful opportunity to grow in self-knowledge by fashioning a new identity. Although grief can be tumultuous and disorienting, it also reflects our distinctly human capacity to rationally adapt as the relationships we depend on evolve. An original account of how grieving works and why it is so important, Grief shows how the pain of this experience gives us a chance to deepen our relationships with others and ourselves.

Author : Jonathan Bennett
Publisher : Clarendon Press
ISBN 13 : 019153174X
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Philosophical Guide to Conditionals written by Jonathan Bennett and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 2003-04-03 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conditional sentences are among the most intriguing and puzzling features of language: analysis of their meaning and function has important implications for, and uses in, many areas of philosophy. Jonathan Bennett, one of the world's leading experts, distils many years' work and teaching into this Philosophical Guide to Conditionals, the fullest and most authoritative treatment of the subject. The literature on conditionals is difficult - needlessly so. Bennett's treatment is meticulously careful and luminously clear. He presents and evaluates in detail various approaches to the understanding of 'indicative' conditionals (like 'If Shakespeare didn't write Hamlet, some aristocrat did') and 'subjunctive' conditionals (like 'If rabbits had not been deliberately introduced into New Zealand, there would be none there today'); and he offers his own view, which will be recognized as a major original contribution to the subject. Journeying through this intellectual territory brings one into contact with the metaphysics of possible worlds, probability and belief-change, probability and logic, the pragmatics of conversation, determinism, ambiguity, vagueness, the law of excluded middle, facts versus events, and more. One might perhaps learn more philosophy from a thorough study of conditionals than from any other kind of work. Bennett's Guide is an ideal introduction for undergraduates with a philosophical grounding, and will also be a rich source of illumination and stimulation for graduate students and professional philosophers.

Author : Kieran Setiya
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400888476
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Midlife written by Kieran Setiya and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-22 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophical wisdom and practical advice for overcoming the problems of middle age How can you reconcile yourself with the lives you will never lead, with possibilities foreclosed, and with nostalgia for lost youth? How can you accept the failings of the past, the sense of futility in the tasks that consume the present, and the prospect of death that blights the future? In this self-help book with a difference, Kieran Setiya confronts the inevitable challenges of adulthood and middle age, showing how philosophy can help you thrive. You will learn why missing out might be a good thing, how options are overrated, and when you should be glad you made a mistake. You will be introduced to philosophical consolations for mortality. And you will learn what it would mean to live in the present, how it could solve your midlife crisis, and why meditation helps. Ranging from Aristotle, Schopenhauer, and John Stuart Mill to Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir, as well as drawing on Setiya’s own experience, Midlife combines imaginative ideas, surprising insights, and practical advice. Writing with wisdom and wit, Setiya makes a wry but passionate case for philosophy as a guide to life.

Author : R. C. Sproul
Publisher : Baker Books
ISBN 13 : 9780801058523
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.2X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Not a Chance written by R. C. Sproul and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 1999-02-01 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: R. C. Sproul refutes the view of many contemporary scientists that chance can cause something to come into being or cause an event to occur.