1Contract no: BAP098M-RG-15-Med Probability Theory

Probability theory is a branch of mathematics that has evolved from the investi-gation of social, behavioral, and physical phenomena that are influenced by ran-domness and uncertainty. For much of its early life, probability theory dealt almost exclusively with gambling games, and, even though there were important contri-butions made by such distinguished mathematicians as Pierre de Fermat, Blaise Pascal, and Pierre-Simon de Laplace, the field lacked respectability and failed to attract sustained attention. One cause of the slow development of probability theory in its early days was the lack of a widely accepted foundation. Unlike the geometry of Euclid, or even the analytical investigations of Newton and Leibnitz, the theory of probability seemed to be eternally tied to the modelling process. In this respect, probability theory had greater kinship with the theories of heat or elasticity than with the pristine worlds of geometry or algebra. Int. Encyc. Social and Behavioral Sciences 18 March 2003 2Over time, foundations for probability were proposed by a number of deep think