[Homer2009-1] Chance, Gods, and statistics

[Josh Kirschner]

For those interested in the progression of human thinking from gods/chance
to modern mathematical understanding of statistics and risk, there is a
great book by Peter Bernstein called, "Against the Gods: The Remarkable
Story of Risk".

Bernstein provides a tour of Man's perceptions of chance, starting with the
ancient Greeks, and progressing through early Arab mathematicians, the
Renaissance, and the development of modern statistical concepts of risk.
Interestingly, the creation of statistics was heavily driven by the
need/desire to better understand gambling.  Not the first innovation to be
spurred forward by vice (see the Internet and porn).

The book is written for the lay person and is very enjoyable.  Peter
Bernstein is a Wall Street guy, so the later part of the book deals heavily
economics and investment theory - itself, an interesting topic given the
latest financial crisis.

Here is a link to the book on Amazon - it's available on Kindle, too.
http://www.amazon.com/Against-Gods-Remarkable-Story-Risk/dp/0471295639/ref=s
r_1_1?ie=UTF8
<http://www.amazon.com/Against-Gods-Remarkable-Story-Risk/dp/0471295639/ref=
sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257257024&sr=8-1> &s=books&qid=1257257024&sr=8-1

Josh

From: homer2009-1-bounces at readingodyssey.org
[mailto:homer2009-1-bounces at readingodyssey.org] On Behalf Of Andre
Stipanovic
Sent: Sunday, November 01, 2009 10:16 PM
To: homer2009-1 at readingodyssey.org
Subject: Re: [Homer2009-1] Of Gods and Men

 

Good questions for us to think about.

I am looking forward to our call tomorrow night!

Andre

 

James Janicki <yanitski at earthlink.net> writes:

 

The questions I'm wondering is if people of that time really thought that
way about the gods affecting their lives so closely?  Was this a way to
accept the impact of chance on their lives?  Are our modern gods also a way
to assist us in accepting chance in our lives?

 

The question I'm wondering is if The Odyssey was used as a teaching story of
its time or was it meant to be pure entertainment or was it meant to be
historical documentation?

 

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