The Design Inference
Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities
Published on 13. September 1998
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-0-521-62387-2 (ISBN)
Description
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 1998 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.
Reviews / Votes
"...quite readable. Those who have no knowledge of the mathematics of probability may be put off, but in fact the level of mathematics and symbolic logic employed is not very difficult...The main arguments...are given in ordinary prose, then translated into symbols...Dembski has made a real advance in probability and information theory..." Books & Culture "...generally careful and precise, often persuasive, and at times surprisingly philosophically sensitive." Ethics "Dembski has produced an astonishing work. The Design InferenceR^ will no doubt become the cornerstone of the intelligent design movement. A marked and dog-eared copy of The Design InferenceR^ deserves a place on your shel not just for its clear historical significance, but also to allow yourself a place in the momentous discussion to come. Philosophia ChristiMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
538 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-62387-2 (9780521623872)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2011
1st Edition
Cambridge University Press
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Book
01/2006
Cambridge University Press
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E-Book
09/1998
Cambridge University Press
€25.49
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Person
William A. Dembski is Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture in Seattle, and Carl F. H. Henry Professor of Theology and Science, Southern Seminary, Louisville.
Content
Preface; Acknowledgments; 1. Introduction; 2. Overview of the design inference; 3. Probability theory; 4. Complexity theory; 5. Specification; 6. Small probability; 7. Epilogue; Notes; References.