The matter of chance

Bibliographic Information

The matter of chance

D.H. Mellor

Cambridge University Press, 2004

  • : pbk

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 176-185) and index

"First paperback edition 2004" --T.p. verso

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Statistical techniques and theories have become widely applied in the physical, biological and social sciences. The enormous increase in their scope and complexity has led to much philosophical discussion of their significance, and of the meaning in non-mathematical terms of the methods and concepts they employ. This book deals not so much with statistical methods as with the central concept of chance, or statistical probability, which statistical theories apply to nature. Examples range from the chance of a tossed coin falling heads to that of a man dying or a radioactive atom decaying in a fixed period of time. Chances seem, however, to be peculiar properties, and to belong to peculiar entitles, to events rather than to things.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • 1. The limits of personalism
  • 2. Measuring partical belief
  • 3. Frequencies and trials
  • 4. Propensity
  • 5. Half lives and the force of mortality
  • 6. Imprecision and inexactness
  • 7. Connectivity and classical propensities
  • 8. Determinism and laws of nature
  • Apology
  • References
  • Index.

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Details

  • NCID
    BA70722466
  • ISBN
    • 0521615984
  • LCCN
    70152629
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Cambridge
  • Pages/Volumes
    xiii, 190 p
  • Size
    23 cm
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