The Design Inference
Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities

This 1998 book breathes new life into classical design arguments, showing how incomplete undirected causes are for science.

William A. Dembski (Author)

9780521678674, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 9 January 2006

264 pages
22.9 x 16.2 x 1.2 cm, 0.37 kg

"Dembski has produced an astonishing work. The Design InferenceR^ will no doubt become the cornerstone of the intelligent design movement. A marked and dog-eared copy of The Design InferenceR^ deserves a place on your shel not just for its clear historical significance, but also to allow yourself a place in the momentous discussion to come. Philosophia Christi

The design inference uncovers intelligent causes by isolating their key trademark: specified events of small probability. Just about anything that happens is highly improbable, but when a highly improbable event is also specified (i.e. conforms to an independently given pattern) undirected natural causes lose their explanatory power. Design inferences can be found in a range of scientific pursuits from forensic science to research into the origins of life to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This challenging and provocative 1998 book shows how incomplete undirected causes are for science and breathes new life into classical design arguments. It will be read with particular interest by philosophers of science and religion, other philosophers concerned with epistemology and logic, probability and complexity theorists, and statisticians.

Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. Overview of the design inference
3. Probability theory
4. Complexity theory
5. Specification
6. Small probability
7. Epilogue
Notes
References.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of science [PDA], Probability & statistics [PBT], Philosophy of mathematics [PBB]