A single observation that is inconsistent with some generalization points to the falsehood of the generalization, and thereby 'points to itself'.
Chapter 4, Evidence, p. 34 |
There are two ways in which a science develops; in response to problems which is itself creates, and in response to problems that are forced on it from the outside.
Ian HackingOpinion is the companion of probability within the medieval epistemology.
Ian HackingMany modern philosophers claim that probability is relation between an hypothesis and the evidence for it.
Ian HackingUntil the seventeenth century there was no concept of evidence with which to pose the problem of induction!
Ian HackingStatistics began as the systematic study of quantitative facts about the state.
Ian HackingWhen land and its tillage are the basis of taxation, one need not care exactly how many people there are.
Ian HackingProbability fractions arise from our knowledge and from our ignorance.
Ian HackingFrom any vocabulary of ideas we can build other ideas by formal combinations of signs. But not any set of ideas will be instructive. One must have the right ideas.
Ian HackingPascal is called the founder of modern probability theory. He earns this title not only for the familiar correspondence with Fermat on games of chance, but also for his conception of decision theory, and because he was an instrument in the demolition of probabilism, a doctrine which would have precluded rational probability theory.
Ian HackingWe favor hypotheses for their simplicity and explanatory power, much as the architect of the world might have done in choosing which possibility to create.
Ian Hacking