NDLI: Probability in 1919/20: the von Mises-Pólya-Controversy

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Siegmund Schultze, Reinhard
Copyright Year	2006
Abstract	The correspondence between Richard von Mises and George Pólya of 1919/20 contains reflections on two well-known articles by von Mises on the foundations of probability in the Mathematische Zeitschrift of 1919, and one paper from the Physikalische Zeitschrift of 1918. The topics touched on in the correspondence are: the proof of the central limit theorem of probability theory, von Mises' notion of randomness, and a statistical criterion for integer-valuedness of physical data. The investigation will hint at both the fruitfulness and the limits of several of von Mises' notions such as ``collective'', ``distribution'' and ``complex adjuncts'' (characteristic functions) for further developments in probability theory and in ``directional statistics''. By pointing to the selectiveness of Pólya's criticism, the historical analysis shows the differing expectations of the two men with respect to the further development of the theory of probability and its applications. The paper thus gives a glimpse of the provisional state of the theory around 1920, before others such as P. Lévy (1886–1971) and A. N. Kolmogorov (1903–1987) stepped in and created a new paradigm for probability theory.
Starting Page	431
Ending Page	515
Page Count	85
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00039519
Journal	Archive for History of Exact Sciences
Volume Number	60
Issue Number	5
e-ISSN	14320657
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2006-08-02
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Mathematics History of Mathematics Physics Mathematical and Computational Physics Astronomy Astrophysics
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Mathematics History and Philosophy of Science

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