# What is the origin of the term 'inverse probability'?

Inverse probability relates strongly, or is synonymous to, Bayesian probability.

Thomas Bayes applied the idea in 'An Essay towards solving a Problem in the Doctrine of Chances' (published in 1763).

Who was the first to use the term 'inverse probability' and why did they call it 'inverse probability' instead of 'reverse probability'?

• See jeff560.tripod.com/i.html for some details. On why not reverse, I have no information. Oct 24 '20 at 11:03

Reading verbatim from Dale's History of Inverse Probability he mentions that the first occurrence of the term in English is due to Augustus de Morgan in the 1830's as for instance in his 1834 Encyclopædia Metropolitana but he considers that the first "inverse" perspective was to be in Abraham de Moivre's 1756 edition of his Doctrine of Chances, which contains as an Appendix his 1733 Approximatio ad summam terminorum binomii $$\overline{a+b}^n$$ in seriem expansi and uses the term conversely