Download or read book Symmetry and Its Discontents written by S. L. Zabell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-06-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a collection of essays on the history and philosophy of probability and statistics by one of the eminent scholars in these subjects. Written over the last fifteen years, they fall into three broad categories. The first deals with the use of symmetry arguments in inductive probability, in particular, their use in deriving rules of succession. The second group deals with three outstanding individuals who made lasting contributions to probability and statistics in very different ways: Frank Ramsey, R.A. Fisher, Alan Turing, and Abraham de Moivre. The last group of essays deals with the problem of "predicting the unpredictable."