Advances in Probability Distributions with Given Marginals Beyond the Copulas [; Lectures Presented at a "Symposium on Distributions with Given Marginals" Organized by the Dept. of Statistics of the University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy, Held in Rome in April 1990]

'Et moi *...* si j'avait su comment en rcvenir. One service mathematics has rendered the je n'y serais point alle.' human race. It has put common sense back Jules Verne where it belongs, on the topmost shelf next to the dusty canistcr labelled 'discarded non­ sense'. The scries is divergent; therefore we may be Eric T. Bell able to do something with it. O. Heaviside Mathematics is a tool for thought. A highly necessary tool in a world where both feedback and non­ linearities abound. Similarly, all kinds of parts of mathematics serve as tools for other parts and for other sciences. Applying a simple rewriting rule to the quote on the right above one finds such statements as: 'One service topology has rendered mathematical physics .. .'; 'One service logic has rendered com­ puter science .. .'; 'One service category theory has rendered mathematics .. .'. All arguably true. And all statements obtainable this way form part of the raison d'etre of this series.