The Logic of Chance, 3rd edition: An Essay on the Foundations and Province of the Theory of Probability, With Especial Reference to Its Logical Bearings and Its Application to Moral and Social Science and to StatisticsVenn, John
Philosophy
The Logic of Chance, 3rd edition: An Essay on the Foundations and Province of the Theory of Probability, With Especial Reference to Its Logical Bearings and Its Application to Moral and Social Science and to Statistics
Venn, John
Chance; Logic, Symbolic and mathematical; Probabilities; Science -- Methodology
1. In the last chapter we discussed at some length the
nature of the kinds of inference in Probability which correspond
to those termed, in Logic, immediate and mediate inferences.
We ascertained what was the meaning of saying, for
example, that the chance of any given man A. B. dying
in a year is 1/3, when concluded from the general proposition
that one man out of three in his circumstances dies. We
also discussed the nature and evidence of rules of a more
completely inferential character. But to stop at this point
would be to take a very imperfect view of the subject. If
Probability is a science of real inference about things, it
must surely lead up to something more than such merely
formal conclusions; we must be able, if not by means of it, at
any rate by some means, to step beyond the limits of what
has been actually observed, and to draw conclusions about
what is as yet unobserved. This leads at once to the question,
What is the connection of Probability with Induction?
This is a question into which it will be necessary to enter
now with some minuteness.
That there is a close connection between Probability and
Induction, must have been observed by almost every one
who has treated of either subject; I have not however seen
any account of this connection that seemed to me to be
satisfactory. An explicit description of it should rather be
sought in treatises upon the narrower subject, Probability;
but it is precisely here that the most confusion is to be
found. The province of Probability being somewhat narrow,
incursions have been constantly made from it into the adjacent
territory of Induction. In this way, amongst the
arithmetical rules discussed in the last chapter, others have
been frequently introduced which ought not in strictness to
be classed with them, as they rest on an entirely different
basis.
2. The origin of such confusion is easy of explanation;
it arises, doubtless, from the habit of laying undue
stress upon the _subjective_ side of Probability, upon that
which treats of the quantity of our belief upon different
subjects and the variations of which that quantity is susceptible.
It has been already urged that this variation of
belief is at most but a constant accompaniment of what is
really essential to Probability, and is moreover common to
other subjects as well. By defining the science therefore
from this side these other subjects would claim admittance
into it; some of these, as Induction, have been accepted, but
others have been somewhat arbitrarily rejected. Our belief
in a wider proposition gained by Induction is, prior to verification,
not so strong as that of the narrower generalization
from which it is inferred. This being observed, a so-called
rule of probability has been given by which it is supposed
that this diminution of assent could in many instances be
calculated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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