Tychomancy : inferring probability from causal structure /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Strevens, Michael.
Imprint:Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, [2013]
Description:1 online resource
Language:English
Subject:
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11188463
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9780674075986
0674075986
9780674073111
0674073118
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Print version record.
Summary:Michael Strevens makes three claims about rules for inferring physical probability. They are reliable. They constitute a key part of the physical intuition that allows us to navigate the world safely in the absence of scientific knowledge. And they played a crucial role in scientific innovation, from statistical physics to natural selection.
Tychomancy--meaning "the divination of chances"--Presents a set of rules for inferring the physical probabilities of outcomes from the causal or dynamic properties of the systems that produce them. Probabilities revealed by the rules are wide-ranging: they include the probability of getting a 5 on a die roll, the probability distributions found in statistical physics, and the probabilities that underlie many prima facie judgments about fitness in evolutionary biology. Michael Strevens makes three claims about the rules. First, they are reliable. Second, they are known, though not fully consciously, to all human beings: they constitute a key part of the physical intuition that allows us to navigate around the world safely in the absence of formal scientific knowledge. Third, they have played a crucial but unrecognized role in several major scientific innovations. A large part of Tychomancy is devoted to this historical role for probability inference rules. Strevens first analyzes James Clerk Maxwell's extraordinary, apparently a priori, deduction of the molecular velocity distribution in gases, which launched statistical physics. Maxwell did not derive his distribution from logic alone, Strevens proposes, but rather from probabilistic knowledge common to all human beings, even infants as young as six months old. Strevens then turns to Darwin's theory of natural selection, the statistics of measurement, and the creation of models of complex systems, contending in each case that these elements of science could not have emerged when or how they did without the ability to "eyeball" the values of physical probabilities.
Other form:Print version: Strevens, Michael. Tychomancy. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, [2013] 9780674073111

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245 1 0 |a Tychomancy :  |b inferring probability from causal structure /  |c Michael Strevens. 
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505 0 0 |t Frontmatter --  |t CONTENTS --  |t FIGURES --  |t AUTHOR'S NOTE --  |t PHYSICAL INTUITION --  |t 1. THE APRIORIST --  |t 2. THE HISTORICAL WAY --  |t 3. THE LOGICAL WAY --  |t 4 THE COGNITIVE WAY --  |t 5. STIRRING --  |t 6. SHAKING --  |t 7. BOUNCING --  |t 8. UNIFYING --  |t 9. 1859 AGAIN --  |t 10. APPLIED BIOEQUIDYNAMICS --  |t 11. INACCURACY, ERROR, AND OTHER FLUCTUATIONS --  |t 12. THE EXOGENOUS ZONE --  |t 13. THE ELEMENTS OF EQUIDYNAMICS --  |t 14. PREHISTORY AND META -- HISTORY --  |t NOTES --  |t GLOSSARY --  |t REFERENCES --  |t INDEX. 
520 |a Michael Strevens makes three claims about rules for inferring physical probability. They are reliable. They constitute a key part of the physical intuition that allows us to navigate the world safely in the absence of scientific knowledge. And they played a crucial role in scientific innovation, from statistical physics to natural selection. 
520 |a Tychomancy--meaning "the divination of chances"--Presents a set of rules for inferring the physical probabilities of outcomes from the causal or dynamic properties of the systems that produce them. Probabilities revealed by the rules are wide-ranging: they include the probability of getting a 5 on a die roll, the probability distributions found in statistical physics, and the probabilities that underlie many prima facie judgments about fitness in evolutionary biology. Michael Strevens makes three claims about the rules. First, they are reliable. Second, they are known, though not fully consciously, to all human beings: they constitute a key part of the physical intuition that allows us to navigate around the world safely in the absence of formal scientific knowledge. Third, they have played a crucial but unrecognized role in several major scientific innovations. A large part of Tychomancy is devoted to this historical role for probability inference rules. Strevens first analyzes James Clerk Maxwell's extraordinary, apparently a priori, deduction of the molecular velocity distribution in gases, which launched statistical physics. Maxwell did not derive his distribution from logic alone, Strevens proposes, but rather from probabilistic knowledge common to all human beings, even infants as young as six months old. Strevens then turns to Darwin's theory of natural selection, the statistics of measurement, and the creation of models of complex systems, contending in each case that these elements of science could not have emerged when or how they did without the ability to "eyeball" the values of physical probabilities. 
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650 0 |a Inference.  |0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85066082 
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