THE LAPLACIAN DETERMINISM

LAPLACE, PIERRE-SIMON.

Philosophischer Versuch über Wahrscheinlichkeiten. Nach der dritten Pariser Auflage übersetzt von Friedrich Wilhelm Tönnies. Als wissenschaftliche Anleitung zur Berichtigung unsere Urtheile in Fällen der Ungewischheit für Philosophen, Aerzte, Richter, Theologen, Naturforscher und Staatsmänner, mit erläuternden Anmerkungen herausgegeben von Karl Christian Langsdorf.

Heidelberg, Karl Groos, 1819.

Contemp. marbled boards. Title-label with gilt lettering probably of more recent date. A stamp on titlepage. XIV,(2),207 pp. Very light browning to a few leaves and margins, otherwise fine.

Scarce first German edition of this ground-breaking work. It is the translation of Laplaces's work from 1814 with the title:"Essai philosophique sur la probabilités" as a separate work of Laplaces introduction to the second edition of his "Theorie analytique des probalités". "It contains the famous passage to the effect that the future of the world is completely determined by the past and that one possessed of the mathematical knowledge of the state of the world at any given instant could predict the future." (Morris Kline).
"The long introduction that Laplace added to the second edition (of Theorie analytique...) was also published separately in the same year, as "Essai philosophique sur les probabilités"....This essay was extremely popular and influential, unlike the "Theorie analytique..." it required no guide and was widely read and quoted. The "Essay" was itself the product of years of thought by Laplace; four different versions saw publication even before the first edition appeared !.....it presented the ideas of the "Theorie analytique..." to a broad popular audience while serving as a synopsis of the full treatise, in part mirroring it in organization. (S.M. Stigler in Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics...edited by Grattan-Guiness).

Order-nr.: 40130