The Taming of ChanceIn 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. |
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User Review - thcson - LibraryThingIf you look at the table of contents in this book, you'll see that it has 23 chapters. Nearly all of them are less than 10 pages long, with uninformative headings like "Bureaux", "Regimental chests ... Read full review
Contents
The argument | 1 |
The doctrine of necessity | 11 |
Public amateurs secret bureaucrats | 16 |
Bureaux | 27 |
The sweet despotism of reason | 35 |
The quantum of sickness | 47 |
The granary of science | 55 |
Suicide is a kind of madness | 64 |
Society prepares the crimes | 115 |
The astronomical conception of society | 125 |
The mineralogical conception of society | 133 |
The most ancient nobility | 142 |
Cassirers thesis | 150 |
The normal state | 160 |
As real as cosmic forces | 170 |
The autonomy of statistical law | 180 |
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Common terms and phrases
average became Berlin birth Broussais called causes century chance chapter classes collected Comte conception constant conviction course crime criminal curve death determinism disease distribution doctrine Durkheim English error essay established example explain fact followed forces France French Galton German given hence History human idea important individual inference institutions jurors jury kind Laplace less letter Logic London madness majority mathematical matter mean measure method mind moral nature necessity normal noted numbers objective observation organ Paris Peirce person philosophical physical Play Poisson political population present probability problem proportion Prussian published question Quetelet reason regularities reliability Report social society standard statistical law suicide tables theory things thought true universe wanted Writings wrote
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Bibliographic information
| Title | The Taming of Chance Issue 17 of Ideas in Context, ISSN 0962-4945 |
| Authors | Ian Hacking, Emeritus University Professor Ian Hacking, Tim Hacking |
| Editor | Cambridge University Press |
| Contributors | Lorraine Daston, Dorothy Ross, Quentin Skinner, James Tully |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, 1990 |
| ISBN | 0521388848, 9780521388849 |
| Length | 264 pages |
| Subjects | › History / Social History Philosophy / Free Will & Determinism Philosophy / Mind & Body Political Science / History & Theory |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |