A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities

A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities

The corrections noted in the Errata section have been incorporated in the text. Three further corrections have also been made: 9/10 in place of 1/10, and 9/10 in place of 6/10, on page 110; and "ex voto" in place of "ex veto" on page 173. This philosophical essay is the development of a lecture on probabilities which I delivered in 1795 to the normal schools whither I had been called, by a decree of the national convention, as professor of mathematics with Lagrange. I have recently published upon the same subject a work entitled The Analytical Theory of Probabilities. I present here without the aid of analysis the principles and general results of this theory, applying them to the most important questions of life, which are indeed for the most part only problems of probability. Strictly speaking it may even be said that nearly all our knowledge is problematical; and in the small number of things which we are able to know with certainty, even in the mathematical sciences themselves, the principal means for ascertaining truthinduction and analogyare based on probabilities; {2} so that the entire system of human knowledge is connected with the theory set forth in this essay. Doubtless it will be seen here with interest that in considering, even in the eternal principles of reason, justice, and humanity, only the favorable chances which are constantly attached to them, there is a great advantage in following these principles and serious inconvenience in departing from them: their chances, like those favorable to lotteries, always end by prevailing in the midst of the vacillations of hazard. I hope that the reflections given in this essay may merit the attention of philosophers and direct it to a subject so worthy of engaging their minds. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 58881
Author: Laplace, Pierre Simon
Release Date: Feb 13, 2019
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Translator: Emory, Frederick Lincoln, 1867-, Truscott, Frederick Wilson, 1870-