“Previous to the time of Pascal, who would have thought of measuring doubt and belief?”

Who could have conceived that the investigation of petty games of chance would have led to the most sublime branch of mathematical science - the theory of probabilities?
Source: The Theory of Political Economy (1871), Chapter I, Introduction, p. 41.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Previous to the time of Pascal, who would have thought of measuring doubt and belief?" by William Stanley Jevons?
William Stanley Jevons photo
William Stanley Jevons 69
English economist and logician 1835–1882

Related quotes

Sören Kierkegaard photo
C. A. R. Hoare photo
Konrad Zuse photo

“The belief in a certain idea gives to the researcher the support for his work. Without this belief he would be lost in a sea of doubts and insufficiently verified proofs.”

Konrad Zuse (1910–1995) German computer scientist and engineer

Der Glaube an eine bestimmte Idee gibt dem Forscher den Rückhalt für seine Arbeit. Ohne diesen Glauben wäre er verloren in einem Meer von Zweifeln und halbgültigen Beweisen.
Attributed in Konrad Zuse http://www.dpma.de/ponline/erfindergalerie/bio_zuse.html on "Die Erfindergalerie", dpma.de, 2008

Peter F. Hamilton photo

“The whole concept of salvation through belief offers strength to those who doubt themselves.”

Peter F. Hamilton (1960) English novelist

Athene, mother of Syrinx, resident of Eden habitat
The Night's Dawn Trilogy (1996-1999), The Neutronium Alchemist (1997)

Albert Einstein photo

“Who would have thought around 1900 that in fifty years time we would know so much more and understand so much less.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

From Albert Einstein and the Cosmic World Order, by C. Lanczos (Wiley, New York, 1956)
Attributed in posthumous publications, Albert Einstein: A guide for the perplexed (1979)

Lesslie Newbigin photo
Jerry Fodor photo

“[T]he degree of confirmation assigned to any given hypothesis is sensitive to properties of the entire belief system … simplicity, plausibility, and conservatism are properties that theories have in virtue of their relation to the whole structure of scientific beliefs taken collectively. A measure of conservatism or simplicity would be a metric over global properties of belief systems.”

Jerry Fodor (1935–2017) American philosopher

Source: Modularity of Mind (1983), p. 107–108 as cited in: Philip Robbins, " Modularity of Mind http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/modularity-mind/", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)

Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon photo
Jim Starlin photo

“Who would have thought that becoming God would be such a hollow victory.”

Jim Starlin (1949) Comic creator

Thanos, in The Thanos Quest (1990), Book 2

Richelle Mead photo

Related topics