Probability

Abstract

IT is widely agreed among various schools of philosophy that we should abandon the quest for certainty in regard to all empirical matters, that is in regard to all matters of fact, whether particular facts or generalizations. This covers the whole ground both of what may be called common-sense knowledge and of scientific knowledge. Here on the threshold we may pause to ask what exactly this certainty of knowledge that we reject is. Formerly one would have thrown light by pointing to the generalizations of logic itself, or of mathematics; that expedient is not available for the reasons already indicated.