HST 246 - Prehistory of Risk

Course Units: 1

This class looks at how European society tried to tame chance and comprehend its whims before and after the arrival of the mathematics of probability around 1650. How did people move from consulting oracles to developing the insurance business? Risk is examined as a historically shaped experience in various areas of its manifestations including oracles, gambling, insurance, philosophy, and theology. CC: WAC-R ISP: AMS