[Homer2009-1] Chance, Gods, and statistics

[Tim Albright (albrigt)]

Hi Josh,

Thanks for the tip.  Just put it on my Kindle.  Apologies again to all
for the hold noise last night.  Not intentional.  There is a classic
philosophy text that also touches on a lot of the themes we've
discussed:  Dodd's Greeks and the Irrational.

Amazon link (no kindle): here
<http://www.amazon.com/Greeks-Irrational-Sather-Classical-Lectures/dp/05
20242300/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257272385&sr=8-1-catcorr> 

Great call last night!

Tim

 

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Tim Albright  |  The Reading Odyssey   |  + 1.512.632.1810 (gmt -6)

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but
in having new eyes.

- Marcel Proust

 

Read the great books.  Share your best thoughts.
Join us: website <http://showsupport.typepad.com/odyssey/> 

 

 

 

From: homer2009-1-bounces at readingodyssey.org
[mailto:homer2009-1-bounces at readingodyssey.org] On Behalf Of Josh
Kirschner
Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 8:08 AM
To: homer2009-1 at readingodyssey.org
Subject: [Homer2009-1] Chance, Gods, and statistics

 

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/r
ef=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&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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