the classical statement about probability was the definition from Boethius’s On Different Topics; which is based on the definition of endoxa in Aristotle’s Topics and thus has a distinctly subjectivist tone. “Something is readily believable if it seems true to everyone or to most people or the wise. . . . The truth or falsity of the argument makes no difference, if only it has the appearance of truth.”75 But Boethius’s definitions of induction (“discourse by means of which there is a progression from particulars to universals”) and example were likewise standard for the next thousand years.
