The Sources of Kolmogorov’s Grundbegriffe

Abstract

Andrei Kolmogorov’s Grundbegriffe der Wahrscheinlichkeits-rechnung put probability’s modern mathematical formalism in place. It also provided a philosophy of probability—an explanation of how the formalism can be connected to the world of experience. In this article, we examine the sources of these two aspects of the Grundbegriffe—the work of the earlier scholars whose ideas Kolmogorov synthesized.