Probability

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Probabilistic methods are in use in a number of subfields in philosophy—and the influence of these methods, especially over the last couple of decades or so, appears to be growing. In this course we'll aim to develop a broad-ranging understanding of probabilistic reasoning in philosophy. We'll examine, in particular, how probabilistic methods have recently been applied to tackle some thorny philosophical problems. A self-contained introduction to formal and then philosophical aspects of probability will be followed by an exploration of how probabilistic methods have been used to address, inter alia, epistemological puzzles, as well as puzzles in the sciences (such as puzzles related to fine-tuning). (Note that only very minimal background in mathematics and in the sciences will be assumed---the course is indeed designed to be largely self-contained.)