Vol. 1: Ideas in History. Lorenz Kruger, Lorraine J. Daston and Michael Heidelberger, eds. The MIT Press. Cambridge, MA, 1987. 472 pp. $32.50. Vol. 2: Ideas in the Sciences. Lorenz Kruger, Gerd Gigerenzer and Mary S. Morgan, eds. 480 pp. $32.50. ($60 lbr set.)
Eight historians, six philosophers, five historians of science, four social scientists, three psychologists, three biologists, one mathmetician and one mathematical statistician gathered in the academic year 1982-83 under the auspices of the University of Bielefeld’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research to study “The probabilistic Revolution”—the “web of changes that made probability a part of philosophy, scientific theories and practice, social policy and daily life between circa 1800 and 1950.” These two volumes contain the 35 essays that resulted from their discussions.
Three essays in Volume 1 discuss the appropriateness of the title. Thomas Kuhn presents an interesting modification of his earlier ideas on scientific revolutions, stressing the ...
