| Girolamo Cardano(1501.9.24-1576.9.21)is a representative of Renaissance humanism,one of the greatest scientists of Europe in the 16 th century,and one of the most important founders of classical probability theory.He has deeply thought and studied the problem of probability in gambling games.His book Liber de Ludo Aleae embodied his thoughts on probability,leaving many problems worth discussing for later generations.Based on the relevant studies of predecessors,especially western scholars,and the interpretation of the original text of the book of gambling,this paper attempts to make a comprehensive and systematic study of Cardano’s probability thought.The full text is divided into 5 chapters.The main contents of each chapter are as follows:The first chapter is the introduction,which mainly explains the significance of studying Cardano and his book Liber de Ludo Aleae,the purpose of this paper and the research status at home and abroad.The second chapter gives a detailed description of Cardano’s life,including his personal experience,scientific achievements and mathematical achievements.This paper mainly expounds the work of mathematics,which is closely related to Cardano’s probability thought.Based on these,this chapter analyzes the formation reasons of Cardano’s probability thought from three perspectives of society,mathematics and philosophy.The third chapter links gambling with probability,starts with the history of gambling games,and explains why gambling games are the model basis of probability research.Furthermore,this chapter makes a brief introduction to Cardano’s book Liber de Ludo Aleae,including the overall introduction of the book,cheating methods in gambling gamesThe fourth chapter makes an in-depth study of probability problems in the book Liber de Ludo Aleae,which can be divided into five parts,including the problem of dice throwing,the problem of points,card games and the unsolved problems of Cardano.In the end,it sums up Cardano’s probability thought,including the definition of classical probability,the prediction of large number theorem,the multiplication rule of independent events,and equal-possibility.The last chapter concludes with a comprehensive review of Cardano’s probability thoughts,giving an objective and fair evaluation based on a comprehensive consideration of contributions to the later generations and limitations.In a word,taking the book Liber de Ludo Aleae as an example,this paper combs and analyzes Cardano’s probability thought: his probability problem originated from gambling games,and his thought has realized the transformation from gambling experience to mathematical abstraction for the first time. |
