Hacking, Taming, chs. 11-13

The most important idea in chs. 11 and 12 has to do with... the distinction between objective (frequency) probability and subjective (degree of belief) probability, as one entree to the gradual erosion of determinism.  See the chart below:

A second important idea in the discussion, though not necessarily in the chapters themseslves, concerns the erosion across the 19th century of, perhaps, determinism (represented by idealism) and essentialism (represented by persisting classical empiricisms).  Is the 'natural kinds' project then a companion to the 'probability and chance' project?

The most important idea in ch. 13 is ... the story of how Quetelet takes the idea of statistical mean and transforms it into a real quantity.  "This is a crucial step in the taming of chance. It began to turn statistical laws that were merely descriptive of large-scale regularities into laws of nature and society that dealt in underlying truths and causes."