Fatal Numbers: Why Count on Chance - Softcover

Enzensberger, Hans Magnus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1935830015 ISBN 13: 9781935830016

Publisher: Upper West Side Philosophers, Incorporated, 2021

Synopsis

Literary Nonfiction. Philosophy. Economics & Statistics. Translated from the German by Karen Leeder. Acclaimed poet, essayist, and cultural critic Hans Magnus Enzensberger takes a fresh, sobering look at our faith in statistics, our desire to predict the future, and our dependence on fortuitousness. Tracing the interface between chance and probability in medical diagnostics, risk models, economics, and the fluctuations of financial markets, FATAL NUMBERS goes straight to the heart of what it means to live, plan, and make decisions in a globalized, digitized, hyperlinked, science-driven, and uncertain world. Foreword by Gerd Gigerenzer. Illustrations by David Fried.

About this title

About the Author:

Best-selling author of The Number Devil, Hans Magnus Enzensberger has been at the forefront of the German and European cultural scenes for more than four decades. He has published over sixty books of poetry, prose, and cultural and political commentary that have been translated into more than forty languages. The many honors and awards he has received include The Georg Büchner Prize, the Heinrich Böll Prize, the Heinrich Heine Prize, the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize, and the Griffin Lifetime Recognition Award.

Review:

Enzensberger cleverly helps us understand the fine line between fact and fiction when it comes to the movements in financial markets by revealing that economic fundamentals are of limited value: in the end, prices and market direction are determined by financial speculation. --Sanford L. Herzfeld, Director and Senior Vice President, David William Securities

... to say that Enzensberger has reinvented the essay would hardly be an exaggeration; he has customised the form with a gusto verging on virtuosity ... --The Independent

... one of Germany's leading public intellectuals ... Enzensberger is the most important postwar writer you have never read ... --London Review of Books

About this edition

• Publisher: Upper West Side Philosophers, Incorporated
• Publication date: 2021
• ISBN 10: 1935830015
• ISBN 13: 9781935830016
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 100