‘We ought then to regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its anterior state and as the cause of the one which is to follow. Given for one instant an intelligence which could comprehend all the forces by which nature is animated and the respective situation of the beings who compose it—an intelligence sufficiently vast to submit these data to analysis—it would embrace in the same formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the lightest atom; for it, nothing would be uncertain and the future, as the past, would be present to its eyes.’
A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities is a classic introduction to the concepts and uses of probability theory. Recognised as one of the founders of modern probability theory, Laplace does not merely provide a mathematical textbook, but a book that deals with everything from the philosophical aspects of probability to the daily application of probability in real life. Laplace’s book does not contain higher mathematics and is easily accessible to casual readers who want to be introduced to this useful mathematical concept.
Pierre-Simon Laplace, sometimes known as the Newton of France, was a French scholar whose work was important to the development of mathematics, physics, and statistics. He became a count during Napoleon’s First French Empire and was named a marquis after the Bourbon Restoration.