PREVIEW

The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities (Cambridge Studies in Probability, Induction and Decision Theory) (Book/ Paperback)

Product Overview

The design inference uncovers intelligent causes by isolating their key trademark: specified events of small probability. Just about anything that happens is highly improbable, but when a highly improbable event is also specified (i.e. conforms to an independently given pattern) undirected natural causes lose their explanatory power. Design inferences can be found in a range of scientific pursuits from forensic science to research into the origins of life to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This challenging and provocative book shows how incomplete undirected causes are for science and breathes new life into classical design arguments. It will be read with particular interest by philosophers of science and religion, other philosophers concerned with epistemology and logic, probability and complexity theorists, and statisticians.

• Provides a solution to the long-standing problem of how to eliminate chance through small probabilities • Breathes new life into classical design arguments, offering a challenging new method for detecting intelligent causes • Of interest to a wide range of philosophers concerned with science, religion, epistemology, and logic, as well as probability and complexity theorists, and statisticians

About the Author(s)