Philosophical lectures on probability. Collected, edited, and annotated by Alberto Mura. With an introductory essay by Maria Carla Galavotti. Transl. by Hykel Hosni (Q952006)

From the Preface: ``This book is a substantially revised and updated version of the volume Filosofia della probability (\dots) published in Italian in 1995 (\dots) [It] comes from the transcriptions of the tape recording a course for graduate students held by de Finetti in 1979 (dots) it is rather a series of lectures in the philosophy of probability, in which de Finetto deals in detail with almost all themes of the subject. This work therefore presents an exposition (\dots) of the ideas of the father of one of (\dots) schools of thought (\dots) the neo-Bayesian school.'' Bruno de Finetti (1906--1985) is renowned for his contributions to probability and statistics and is considered the father, together with Frank Plimpton Ramsay, of the subjective interpretation of probability. As de Finetti says, probability ``means degree of belief as actually held by someone, on the ground of his whole knowledge, experience, information''. Two people can thus make different probability evaluations, and so ``probability does not exist'' in a strict sense of classical, axiomatic, logistical, frequentist or similar approach. Nevertheless, subjective probability does possess an operational definition (in terms of ``betting quotients'') to which de Finetti added the notion of exchangeability. Together with Bayes' theorem this allowed him to gain the inferential method at the core of neo-Bayesianism. The book is not a monograph on the subjective probability but offers instead a vivid account of its main topics enriched with questions from listeners and answers given by de Finetti. A good lecture for all interested in the philosophy of probability.