The Taming of Chance
$95.00 (C)
Part of Ideas in Context
- Author: Ian Hacking, University of Toronto
- Date Published: October 1990
- availability: Available
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9780521380140
$
95.00
(C)
Hardback
Other available formats:
Paperback, eBook
Looking for an examination copy?
This title is not currently available for examination. However, if you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an examination copy. To register your interest please contact [email protected] providing details of the course you are teaching.
-
In this important new study Ian Hacking continues the enquiry into the origins and development of certain characteristic modes of contemporary thought undertaken in such previous works as his best selling Emergence of Probability. Professor Hacking shows how by the late nineteenth century it became possible to think of statistical patterns as explanatory in themselves, and to regard the world as not necessarily deterministic in character. Combining detailed scientific historical research with characteristic philosophic breath and verve, The Taming of Chance brings out the relations among philosophy, the physical sciences, mathematics and the development of social institutions, and provides a unique and authoritative analysis of the "probabilization" of the Western world.
Reviews & endorsements
"Hacking has an uncanny instinct for honing in upon some critical and novel feature of the past and showing how seemingly disparate facts fall into place once we grant him his central category. He does not pretend to make a complete survey of his topic. Again like an archaelogist, he respects the fragmentary record as one of the limitations of the trade. But what he digs up and deciphers never fails to engage and illuminate." Science
See more reviews"My summary hardly does justice to the richness of Hacking's ideas or his many asides, like the striking comparison of Peirce and Friedrich Nietzsche....Hacking's meticulous scholarship, his comprehension of various areas of learning, and his commitment to linear exposition seem to me to exceed Foucault's." Bruce Kuklick, American Historical Review
"The Taming of Chance contains a wealth of information and is very pleasant reading. The various pursuits that impinge on the taming of chance and the development of statistical law are overwhelming. I recommend this book strongly to anyone interested in the development of statistical thought." Peter Guttorp, Journal of the American Statistical Association
Customer reviews
Not yet reviewed
Be the first to review
Review was not posted due to profanity
×Product details
- Date Published: October 1990
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9780521380140
- length: 284 pages
- dimensions: 235 x 157 x 27 mm
- weight: 0.534kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
1. The argument
2. The doctrine of necessity
3. Public amateurs, secret bureaucrats
4. Bureaux
5. The sweet despotism of reason
6. The quantum of sickness
7. The granary of science
8. Suicide is a kind of madness
9. The experimental basis of the philosophy of legislation
10. Facts without authenticity, without detail, without control, and without value
11. By what majority?
12. The law of large numbers
13. Regimental chests
14. Society prepares the crimes
15. The astronomical conception of society
16. The mineralogical conception of society
17. The most ancient nobility
18. Cassirer's thesis
19. The normal state
20. As real as cosmic forces
21. The autonomy of statistical law
22. A chapter from Prussian statistics
23. A universe of chance
Notes
Index.
related journals
also by this author
Sorry, this resource is locked
Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email [email protected]
Register Sign in» Proceed
You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.
Continue ×Are you sure you want to delete your account?
This cannot be undone.
Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.
If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.
×