Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T07:06:46.510Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

CHAPTER XXI - PROBABILITY OF JUDGMENTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2011

Get access

Summary

1. On the presumption that the general method of this treatise for the solution of questions in the theory of probabilities, has been sufficiently elucidated in the previous chapters, it is proposed here to enter upon one of its practical applications selected out of the wide field of social statistics, viz., the estimation of the probability of judgments. Perhaps this application, if weighed by its immediate results, is not the best that could have been chosen. One of the first conclusions to which it leads is that of the necessary insufficiency of any data that experience alone can furnish, for the accomplishment of the most important object of the inquiry. But in setting clearly before us the necessity of hypotheses as supplementary to the data of experience, and in enabling us to deduce with rigour the consequences of any hypothesis which may be assumed, the method accomplishes all that properly lies within its scope. And it may be remarked, that in questions which relate to the conduct of our own species, hypotheses are more justifiable than in questions such as those referred to in the concluding sections of the previous chapter. Our general experience of human nature comes in aid of the scantiness and imperfection of statistical records.

Type
Chapter
Information
An Investigation of the Laws of Thought
On Which Are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities
, pp. 376 - 398
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009
First published in: 1854

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • PROBABILITY OF JUDGMENTS
  • George Boole
  • Book: An Investigation of the Laws of Thought
  • Online publication: 05 November 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511693090.022
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • PROBABILITY OF JUDGMENTS
  • George Boole
  • Book: An Investigation of the Laws of Thought
  • Online publication: 05 November 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511693090.022
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • PROBABILITY OF JUDGMENTS
  • George Boole
  • Book: An Investigation of the Laws of Thought
  • Online publication: 05 November 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511693090.022
Available formats
×