Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Are Statistics Only Made of Data?

Know-how and Presupposition from the 17th and 19th Centuries

  • Book
  • © 2024

Overview

Authors:
  1. Éric Brian

    1. Centre de recherches historiques, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, France

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Provides a comparative overview on statistical know-how
  • Studies numerical data over the last four centuries
  • Discusses socio-historical conditions which made calculations and their interpretations possible

Part of the book series: Methodos Series (METH, volume 20)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (4 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Considering Data: Critique and Method

    • Éric Brian
    Pages 1-17

  3. Data Arithmetic, Ratios and Mechanical Reasoning in the 17th and 18th Centuries

    • Éric Brian
    Pages 19-69

  4. Analytical Probability, Averages and Data Distributions in the 19th Century

    • Éric Brian
    Pages 71-144

  5. Idols, Paradigms and Specters in Data Sciences

    • Éric Brian
    Pages 145-162

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 163-169
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book examines several epistemological regimes in studies of numerical data over the last four centuries. It distinguishes these regimes and mobilises questions present in the philosophy of science, sociology and historical works throughout the 20th century. Attention is given to the skills of scholars and their methods, their assumptions, and the socio-historical conditions that made calculations and their interpretations possible. In doing so, questions posed as early as Émile Durkheim’s and Ernst Cassirer’s ones are revisited and the concept of symbolic form is put to the test in this particular survey, conducted over long period of time. Although distinct from a methodological and epistemological point of view, today these regimes may be found together in the toolbox of statisticians and those who comment on their conclusions. As such, the book is addressed to social scientists and historians and all those who are interested in numerical productions.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Centre de recherches historiques, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, France

    Éric Brian

About the author

After a dissertation in Mathematical Statistics and another in History and Social Sciences, Éric Brian became a Professor at EHESS (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France) and between 2002 and 2018 guest professor at the Institut für Philosphie at the University of Vienna, Austria. At EHESS, he is the current holder of the Chairs “History of Probabilities and Statistics” and “Historical sociology of symbolic instruments”. Since 1995, he is the editor of Revue de Synthèse, a journal at the crossroads of History, Social Sciences and Philosophy created in1900.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Are Statistics Only Made of Data?

  • Book Subtitle: Know-how and Presupposition from the 17th and 19th Centuries

  • Authors: Éric Brian

  • Series Title: Methodos Series

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51254-4

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-51253-7Published: 13 March 2024

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-51256-8Due: 13 April 2024

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-51254-4Published: 12 March 2024

  • Series ISSN: 1572-7750

  • Series E-ISSN: 2542-9892

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 169

  • Number of Illustrations: 20 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Social Sciences, general, Statistics, general, Philosophy of Science, Epistemology, Epistemology

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation