Fatal Numbers: Why Count on Chance
3/5
()
About this ebook
Acclaimed poet and essayist Hans Magnus Enzensberger takes a fresh, sobering look at our faith in statistics, our desire to predict the future, and our dependence on fortuitousness. Tracing the interface between chance and probability in medical diagnostics, risk models, economics, and the fluctuations of financial markets, Fatal Numbers goes straight to the heart of what it means to live, plan, and make decisions in a globalized, digitized, hyperlinked, science-driven, and uncertain world ...
Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Hans Magnus Enzensberger (Baviera, 1929 -Múnich, 2022) fue uno de los creadores más agudos y significativos de nuestro tiempo. Fundó y dirigió revistas culturales (Kursbuch y The Transatlantic), fue un poeta extraordinario, ensayista personalísimo y polémico, autor teatral, realizador de documentales cinematográficos, etc. También fue fundador y miembro durante muchos años del jurado del Premio Anagrama de Ensayo. Entre sus numerosos galardones figuran el Premio Príncipe de Asturias de Comunicación y Humanidades y la Medalla de Oro del Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid, otorgados en 2002; en Francia, en 2009, recibió la Orden de las Artes y las Letras. En Anagrama se ha publicado gran parte de su polifacética obra: los ensayos recogidos en Detalles, Política y delito, El interrogatorio de La Habana y otros ensayos, Para una crítica de la ecología política, Elementos para una teoría de los medios de comunicación, Conversaciones con Marx y Engels, Migajas políticas, ¡Europa, Europa!, Mediocridad y delirio, La gran migración, Perspectivas de guerra civil, Zigzag, El perdedor radical. Ensayo sobre los hombres del terror, En el laberinto de la inteligencia. Guía para idiotas y El gentil monstruo de Bruselas o Europa bajo tutela, las novelas El corto verano de la anarquía. Vida y muerte de Durruti, Josefine y yo y Hammerstein o el tesón (declarado el mejor libro de 2010 por la revista francesa Lire), los libros de poemas Mausoleo y El hundimiento del Titanic, la obra teatral El filántropo y la antología de textos Los elixires de la ciencia. Miradas de soslayo en poesía y prosa. Fotografía © Basso Cannarsa / Opale
Read more from Hans Magnus Enzensberger
The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New Selected Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Fatal Numbers
Titles in the series (6)
17 Vorurteile, die wir Deutschen gegen Amerika und die Amerikaner haben und die so nicht ganz stimmen können Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe DNA of Prejudice: On the One and the Many Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFatal Numbers: Why Count on Chance Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Vocation of Poetry (Winner of the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Award for Creative Non-Fiction). Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yoga for the Mind: A New Ethic for Thinking and Being & Meridians of Thought (2014 Living Now Book Award Winner) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wisdom of Parenthood: An Essay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related ebooks
Lectures On Fundamental Concepts Of Algebra And Geometry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsProblem Solved!: The Great Breakthroughs in Mathematics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrinciples of Combinatorics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLectures on Ergodic Theory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFinite Permutation Groups Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTaxicab Geometry: An Adventure in Non-Euclidean Geometry Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The philosophy of mathematics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMathematical Fallacies and Paradoxes Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Secrets of Creation: The Mystery of the Prime Numbers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Case for God: A Math Book Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPascal Triangle Analogues Introduction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Philosophy of Set Theory: An Historical Introduction to Cantor's Paradise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chaos and Dynamical Systems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsProof in Geometry: With "Mistakes in Geometric Proofs" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Adventurer's Guide to Number Theory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gentle Art of Mathematics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuantum Mechanics and Experience Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strength in Numbers: Discovering the Joy and Power of Mathematics in Everyday Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJustice by Lottery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Origin of the Logic of Symbolic Mathematics: Edmund Husserl and Jacob Klein Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Great Feuds in Mathematics: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Symmetries in Quantum Physics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmusements in Mathematics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Individual Choice: Teams and Frames in Game Theory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Essay on the Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWonders Beyond Numbers: A Brief History of All Things Mathematical Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Infinity Delusion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrimes Against Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Social Science For You
Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Witty Banter: Be Clever, Quick, & Magnetic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fervent: A Woman's Battle Plan to Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Secret Garden: Women's Sexual Fantasies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All About Love: New Visions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Human Condition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Verbal Judo, Second Edition: The Gentle Art of Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women Don't Owe You Pretty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Oprah's Book Club Selection) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Denial of Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Fatal Numbers
3 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Fatal Numbers - Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Fatal Numbers
Why Count on Chance
Translated from the German by Karen Leeder
With a Foreword by Gerd Gigerenzer
*
Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc.
New York 2011
*
Subway Line, No. 3
~ Philosophical thinking is Yoga for the Mind® ~
Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc. provides a publication venue for original philosophical thinking steeped in lived life, in line with our motto: philosophical living & lived philosophy.
Smashwords Edition
ISBN 978-1-935830-10-8
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Published by Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc.
P. O. Box 250645, New York, NY 10025, USA
www.westside-philosophers.com / www.yogaforthemind.us
English Translation and Foreword Copyright (c) 2010 by Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc.
Original publication: Fortuna und Kalkül: Zwei mathematische Belustigungen
Copyright (c) Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. For all inquiries concerning permission to reuse material from any of our titles, please contact the publisher in writing, or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA (www.copyright.com).
The colophon is a registered trademark of Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc.
Our special thanks to Paul Newman for reviewing the manuscript, and to David Fried for allowing us to use his Way of Words, No.1, 2008
as a cover image. Cover image copyright (c) 2010 by David Fried
This book is also available in print
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Enzensberger, Hans Magnus.
[Fortuna und Kalkül. English]
Fatal numbers : why count on chance / Hans Magnus Enzensberger ; translated from the German by Karen Leeder ; with a foreword by Gerd Gigerenzer.
p. cm. -- (Subway line ; no. 3)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 978-1-935830-01-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Probabilities--Philosophy. 2. Chance. I. Title.
QA273.A35E5913 2011
519.2--dc22
2010043287
*
Contents
Foreword
*
Fatal Numbers
*
On the Metaphysical Antics of Mathematics
*
Select Bibliography
*
Contributors
*
Foreword
Two gorgeously dressed young women sit upright on two chairs calmly facing each other, yet neither is aware of the other’s beauty. One is blindfolded, a wheel in her left hand, which human figures desperately climb, cling to, or tumble from; the other gazes into a hand-mirror, lost in admiration of herself. The blindfolded beauty is Fortuna—the fickle, wheel-toting goddess of chance. Her companion is sober Sapientia—the calculating, vain, divine being of science. The portrait was made in Paris some 500 years ago.
Hans Magnus Enzensberger’s book is about the breakdown of the opposition between Fortuna and Sapientia’s alter ego, science. It is about the golden fruits of their intimate relationship, and the attempts of each to snatch the other’s possessions. Science sought to liberate humans from Fortuna’s wheel, to banish luck, and replace chances with causes. Fortuna struck back by undermining science itself with chance and creating the vast empire of probability and statistics. After their struggles neither remained the same: Fortuna was tamed, and science lost its certainty.
Today, we live in the mesmerizing world