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Showing posts from February 12, 2023

Chapter 18: Thinking about values

  Chapter 18: Thinking about values •       Ludwig Wittgenstein   was one of the 20th century's most influential philosophers. In a letter to a student, he wrote:  •       What is the use of studying philosophy if all it does for you is to enable you to talk with some plausibility about some abstruse questions in logic, etc., and if it does not improve your thinking about the important questions of everyday life?” •        The same theory applies to critical thinking. It would be sad indeed if studying critical thinking helps us solve logic puzzles, but it does not improve our everyday thinking.  •       Values are standards or ideals with which we evaluate behaviour, people, or situations. We admire certain people because their lives exemplify the values we approve of, such as kindness.  •       But values also affect our choices. So...

Chapter 17: Statistics and Probability

Chapter 17: Statistics and Probability •       Statistics and probability are two interrelated fields of mathematics that deal with collecting, analysing, and interpreting data.   Statistics is the study of data and involves techniques for collecting, organis ing, summari sing, analysing, interpreting, and drawing conclusions from data. It provides a set of tools for making decisions based on data, as well as for assessing the reliability and uncertainty of these decisions. •       Probability, on the other hand, is the study of chance and randomness. It deals with the likelihood or chance of an event occurring and is expressed as a number between 0 and 1, with 0 indicating that an event is impossible, and 1 indicating that an event is certain to occur. Probability is a crucial component of statistics, as it is used to make inferences and predictions about populations based on samples of data. •       Togeth...