The Matter of Chance

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.

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.