Abstract
Why do we think that nature follows certain rules? What is it that leads us to believe that there is some law at work rather than none? Cournot gave the first deep analysis of our propensity to recognize structures, an ability that is essential to scientific discovery. For him, this sort of belief is not quantifiable and has nothing to do with the calculation of probabilities. By highlighting the importance of the interpretive dimension of knowledge, he opened up a string of questions, about subjectivity, pluralism, etc., which still occupy epistemologists to this day.
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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Bouleau, N. (2011). Cournot’s “Philosophical Probabilities”. In: Risk and Meaning. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17647-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17647-0_3
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