Article ID: CBB001553591

The Objective and the Subjective in Mid-Nineteenth-Century British Probability Theory (2015)

unapi

This paper provides a critical discussion of the historical and theoretical meaningfulness of the distinction between `objective' and `subjective' probability, as it supposedly emerged around 1840, by examining whether and how it appeared in the work of the mid-nineteenth-century British revisionist probabilists. A detailed analysis of the contributions of Augustus De Morgan, John Stuart Mill, George Boole, Robert Leslie Ellis and John Venn to probability is put forward in order to show that in so far as the terms did not appear as contradictories it is not possible to understand or compare these contributions with reference to the modern binary of `objective' and `subjective'.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001553591/

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Authors & Contributors
Verburgt, Lukas M.
Donal Murphy
Dunning, David E.
Zabell, Sandy L.
Wang, Xiao-qin
Valente, K. G.
Journals
British Society for the History of Mathematics Bulletin
Historia Mathematica
British Journal for the History of Mathematics
Studies in Dialectics of Nature
Journal of the History of Ideas
Journal Electronique d'Histoire des Probabilités et de la Statistique
Publishers
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Chicago
Concepts
Mathematics
Logic
Probability and statistics
Mathematicians
Science education and teaching
Historical method
People
De Morgan, Augustus
Boole, George
Venn, John
Ellis, Robert Leslie
Whewell, William
Walton, William
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
18th century
Places
Great Britain
England
France
Germany
British Isles
Institutions
London Mathematical Society
Oxford University
Cambridge University
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