This book provides an English translation of the work Principles of the Probability Calculus published in 1886 by Johannes von Kries, which discusses the range theory of probability. It offers a novel account of the foundations of probability, an account which was familiar to Keynes, Kneale, Weber, Reichenbach, and von Mises. This account dispenses with the principle of indifference in probability, and it introduces the method of arbitrary functions. Confusions in the history of probability are pinpointed, and a novel theory is developed in which probability is neither entirely subjective...

This book provides an English translation of the work Principles of the Probability Calculus published in 1886 by Johannes von Kries, which discusses the range theory of probability. It offers a novel account of the foundations of probability, an account which was familiar to Keynes, Kneale, Weber, Reichenbach, and von Mises. This account dispenses with the principle of indifference in probability, and it introduces the method of arbitrary functions. Confusions in the history of probability are pinpointed, and a novel theory is developed in which probability is neither entirely subjective...

This book explores René Descartes’s attempts to describe particular bodies, such as rocks, minerals, metals, plants, and animals, within the mechanistic interpretation of nature of his philosophical program. Despite his early rationalistic epistemology, Descartes’s increasing attention to collections, histories, lists of qualities, and particular bodies results in a puzzling ‘short history of all natural phenomena’ contained in the Principles of philosophy (1644). The present book outlines the role of Descartes's observations and experimentation as he aimed...

This book forms an important part of the current revival of the debate around the category of historical epistemology. The term “historical epistemology” designates a methodology or research program aimed at building a historically informed theory of knowledge and/or a history of science and technology that enhances its epistemological aspects. This book offers an original panorama of the French debate surrounding the emergence and consolidation of the intellectual program of historical epistemology over a period ranging from the end of the 19th century to the second half of the 20th...

This book highlights and develops a hitherto neglected area of Hans Blumenberg's contributions, i.e., history and philosophy of science. It covers both Blumenberg’s works on the history of ideas and conceptual change, as well as his studies on transformative periods and his intellectual history of technology. Hans Blumenberg (1920-1996) was one of the leading German philosophers after the Second World War, bridging from the continental tradition of philosophy, conceptual history and metaphorology. This volume, though, explores the methodological instruments that he developed and how we...

This book collects a variety of short essays on Stephen Gaukroger’s thought, by leading scholars, both senior and junior. Stephen Gaukroger (1950–2023) was one of the preeminent specialists of early modern science and philosophy, particularly their interrelations including under the heading ‘natural philosophy’, on the international scene, since the 1980s, starting with his prominent Cartesian scholarship (and biography) and moving towards the formidable 4-volume series on science and the shaping of modernity (from Emergence of a Scientific Culture to Civilization and the...