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This volume in the Synthese Library Series is the result of a con ference held at the Roskilde University, Denmark, September 16- 18, 1998. The purpose of this meeting was to shed light on some of the recent issues in probability theory and track their history; to analyze their philosophical and mathematical significance, and to analyze the role of mathematical probability theory in other sciences. Hence the conference was called Probability Theory Philosophy! Recent History and Relations to Science. The editors would like to thank the invited speakers includ ing in alphabetical order Prof. N.H. Bingham (BruneI Univer sity), Prof. Berna KIlmc; (Bogazici University), Prof. Eberhard Knoblock (Techniche Universitat Berlin), Prof. J.B. Paris (Uni versity of Manchester), Prof. T. Seidenfeld (Carnegie Mellon University), Prof. Glenn Shafer (Rutgers University) and Prof. Volodya Vovk (University of London) for contributing, in the most lucid and encouraging way, to the fulfillment of the con ference aim. The editors are also grateful to the invited speakers for making their contributions available for publication. The conference was organized by the Danish Network on the History and Philosophy of Mathematics The editors would like to thank the network's organizing com mittee consisting of Prof. Kirsti Andersen (University of Aarhus), Prof. Jesper Liitzen (University of Copenhagen), Dr. Tinne Hoff Kjeldsen (Roskilde University) and the committee's secretaries Lise Mariane Jeppesen and Jesper Thrane (Roskilde University).
List of contents
Original Abstracts.- 1. The Philosophy and Recent History of Probability Theory and Statistics.- Probability and Statistics: Some Thoughts at the Turn of the Millennium.- Kolmogorov's Complexity Conception of Probability.- Emile Borel's View of Probability Theory.- The Reception of John Venn's Philosophy of Probability.- 2. Contemporary Issues in Probability Theory and Statistics.- On the Distribution of Probability Functions in the Natural World.- Nature's Possibilities and Expectations.- Remarks on the Theory of Conditional Probability: Some Issues of Finite versus Countable Additivity.
Summary
A collection of papers presented at the conference on Probability Theory - Philosophy, Recent History and Relations to Science, University of Roskilde, Denmark, September, 1998. This book sheds light on some discussions of the problems in probability theory and their history, analysing their philosophical and mathematical significance.
