Paradoxes in Probability Theory
Part of the SpringerBriefs in Philosophy book series (BRIEFSPHILOSOPH)
Table of contents
About this book
Introduction
Paradoxes provide a vehicle for exposing misinterpretations and misapplications of accepted principles. This book discusses seven paradoxes surrounding probability theory. Some remain the focus of controversy; others have allegedly been solved, however the accepted solutions are demonstrably incorrect. Each paradox is shown to rest on one or more fallacies. Instead of the esoteric, idiosyncratic, and untested methods that have been brought to bear on these problems, the book invokes uncontroversial probability principles, acceptable both to frequentists and subjectivists. The philosophical disputation inspired by these paradoxes is shown to be misguided and unnecessary; for instance, startling claims concerning human destiny and the nature of reality are directly related to fallacious reasoning in a betting paradox, and a problem analyzed in philosophy journals is resolved by means of a computer program.
Keywords
Anthropic Fallacies Betting Crowd Probability Theory Doomsday Argument probability theory Esoteric Methods Idiosyncratic Methods Misguided paradoxes Newcomb's Problem probability theory Newcomb's problem Open box game probability theory Paradoxes Probability theory Paradoxes in Probability Theory Prisoner's dilemma Simulation Argument probability theory Two envelopes probability theory hadron collider card experiment probability theory
Bibliographic information
- DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5140-8
- Copyright Information The Author(s) 2013
- Publisher Name Springer, Dordrecht
- eBook Packages Mathematics and Statistics
- Print ISBN 978-94-007-5139-2
- Online ISBN 978-94-007-5140-8
- Series Print ISSN 2211-4548
- Series Online ISSN 2211-4556
- About this book