Poincaré’s odds

Abstract

This paper is devoted to Poincaré’s work in probability. Though the subject does not represent a large part of the mathematician’s achievements, it provides significant insight into the evolution of Poincaré’s thought on several important matters such as the changes in physics implied by statistical mechanics and molecular theories. After having drawn the general historical context of this evolution, I focus on several important steps in Poincaré’s texts dealing with probability theory, and eventually consider how his legacy was developed by the next generation.