Claims Quote by Ian Hacking

It has been pointed out already that no knowledge of probabilities, less in degree than certainty, helps us to know what conclusions are true,…

— John Maynard Keynes

“A distinguished writer [Siméon Denis Poisson] has thus stated the fundamental definitions of the science: 'The probability of an event is the reason we…

— George Boole

All that belongs to human understanding, in this deep ignorance and obscurity, is to be sceptical, or at least cautious, and not to admit…

— David Hume

It is the concept of likelihood that a real understanding of probability resides, and we must learn how to measure it.

— Anthony Stafford Beer

The word 'chance' then expresses only our ignorance of the causes of the phenomena that we observe to occur and to succeed one another…

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

It follows that the word probability, in its mathematical acceptance, has reference to the state of our knowledge of the circumstances under which an…

— George Boole

“The probability of an event is the reason we have to believe that it has taken place, or that it will take place. The…

— Siméon Denis Poisson

“It is probably better to realize that the probability concept is in a sense subjective, that it is always based on uncertain knowledge, and…

— Richard P. Feynman

I am fully assured, that no general method for the solution of questions in the theory of probabilities can be established which does not…

— George Boole

It was our use of probability theory as logic that has enabled us to do so easily what was impossible for those who thought…

— Edwin Thompson Jaynes

The theory of probabilities is basically only common sense reduced to a calculus. It makes one estimate accurately what right-minded people feel by a…

— Pierre-Simon Laplace

Think of a hypothesis as a card. A theory is a house made of hypotheses.

— Marilyn vos Savant