A Philosophical Guide to Chance: Physical Probability - Softcover

Handfield, Toby

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1107607353 ISBN 13: 9781107607354

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2012

Synopsis

It is a commonplace that scientific inquiry makes extensive use of probabilities, many of which seem to be objective chances, describing features of reality that are independent of our minds. Such chances appear to have a number of paradoxical or puzzling features: they appear to be mind-independent facts, but they are intimately connected with rational psychology; they display a temporal asymmetry, but they are supposed to be grounded in physical laws that are time-symmetric; and chances are used to explain and predict frequencies of events, although they cannot be reduced to those frequencies. This book offers an accessible and non-technical introduction to these and other puzzles. Toby Handfield engages with traditional metaphysics and philosophy of science, drawing upon recent work in the foundations of quantum mechanics and thermodynamics to provide a novel account of objective probability that is empirically informed without requiring specialist scientific knowledge.

About this title

Book Description:

A highly accessible introduction to the philosophy of chance, primarily for students and researchers in philosophy, but also for readers interested in the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics and thermodynamics. Develops a sceptical view which challenges realist accounts of chance.

About the Author:

Toby Handfield is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, Monash University. He is the editor of Dispositions and Causes (2009).

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1107607353
• ISBN 13: 9781107607354
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 266