The book explores the specifics of probabilistic methods and probabilistic thinking against the background of the historical development of science. The scope of the historical approach is limited to the period from the 17th to the end of the 20th centuries. A number of eras in the development of ideas of probability are taken into account, which are associated with natural science, mathematics and the use of probabilistic methods in systems research. Specific issues of a debatable nature are revealed regarding the definition of the concept of “probability”, the concept of “stochastic pattern”, as well as those affecting the scientific controversy surrounding the nature of probabilistic determinism. For researchers, graduate students and students.