Logic & Philosophy of Science

Course Description


Course:  SocSci 108; Philos 108 
Name:  Probabilistic Epistemology 
Description:  In the middle of the 17th century, philosopher-mathematicians floated a new paradigm of judgment, in which the two values "yes" and "no" were replaced by a continuum of probability values, and on top of the old logic of truth and falsity was built what some of us in the 20th century came to see as a new probability logic, a logic of partial belief -- within which traditional accounts of knowledge and reason, of scientific methodology and rational decision, are radically revised. For a more detailed picture of the course, see (1) the first half dozen chapters of my book, Probability and the Art of Judgment (Cambridge U. P., 1992), or (2) readings 1 and 4 in my web site: www.princeton.edu/~bayesway