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Klappentext Combining detailed scientific historical research with characteristic philosophic breadth and verve! The Taming of Chance brings out the relations between philosophy! the physical sciences! mathematics and the development of social institutions! and provides a unique and authoritative analysis of the 'probabilisation' of the western world. Zusammenfassung The Taming of Chance brings out the relations between philosophy! the physical sciences! mathematics and the development of social institutions! and provides a unique and authoritative analysis of the 'probabilisation' of the western world. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgements; 1. The argument; 2. The doctrine of necessity; 3. Public amateurs, secret bureaucrats; 4. Bureaux; 5. The sweet despotism of reason; 6. The quantum of sickness; 7. The granary of science; 8. Suicide is a kind of madness; 9. The experimental basis of the philosophy of legislation; 10. Facts without authenticity, without detail, without control, and without value; 11. By what majority?; 12. The law of large numbers; 13. Regimental chests; 14. Society prepares the crimes; 15. The astronomical conception of society; 16. The mineralogical conception of society; 17. The most ancient nobility; 18. Cassirer's thesis; 19. The normal state; 20. As real as cosmic forces; 21. The autonomy of statistical law; 22. A chapter from Prussian statistics; 23. A universe of chance; Notes; Index.