Why read Classical Probability in the Enlightenment?

Book cover of Classical Probability in the Enlightenment

Book description

What did it mean to be reasonable in the Age of Reason? Classical probabilists from Jakob Bernouli through Pierre Simon Laplace intended their theory as an answer to this question--as "nothing more at bottom than good sense reduced to a calculus," in Laplace's words. In terms that can be easily…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Classical Probability in the Enlightenment as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

David Flusfeder

Author

Sadly, Games, Gods, and Gambling by FN David is out of print. This is the next best thing. Lorraine Daston has the supreme gift of making the complicated idea seem straightforward. This is an account of the frenzy for measuring that happened in the 18th century, and how it made the world we live in today, when the gambler’s eye for odds has become the algorithm of taming chance that guides all our decisions.

From David's list on The best books about luck: winning, losing, and seeing opportunity.