Автор: L. Jonathan Cohen
Название: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Induction and Probability
Издательство: Oxford University Press
Год: 1989
ISBN: 9780198750789 / 0198750781
Язык: English
Формат: pdf
Размер: 17,5 mb
Страниц: 232
The purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to philosophical issues and arguments about probability and induction, not to survey the past and present range of those issues and arguments. The text is therefore highly selective both in the topics and authors that it discusses and also in the points that it makes about them. It seeks to engage the reader’s interest by presenting a coherent and readily intelligible picture of the field, with due regard to the depth and difficulty of the fundamental philosophical issues, rather than to aim at a more comprehensive and encyclopaedic type of treatment (which might also be more superficial). And it economizes as much as possible in the use of mathematical symbolism, the statement of mathematical results and the derivation of statistical algorithms, because its concern is with the philosophical issues rather than with the mathematical ones.
Cohen demonstrates the diversity of logical structures that are available for judgements of probability, and explores the rationale for their appropriateness in different contexts of application. Thus his study deals with the complexity of the underlying philosophical issues without simply cataloging alternative conceptions or espousing a particular "favorite" theory.