Download or read book Adolphe Quetelet Social Physics and the Average Men of Science 1796 1874 written by Kevin Padraic Donnelly and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2015-06-15 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adolphe Quetelet was an influential astronomer and statistician whose controversial work inspired heated debate in European and American intellectual circles. In creating a science designed to explain the "average man," he helped contribute to the idea of normal, most enduringly in his creation of the Quetelet Index, which came to be known as the Body Mass Index. Kevin Donnelly presents the first scholarly biography of Quetelet, exploring his contribution to quantitative reasoning, his place in nineteenth-century intellectual history, and his profound influence on the modern idea of average.
Download or read book Adolphe Quetelet Social Physics and the Average Men of Science 1796 1874 written by Kevin Donnelly and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-07-28 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adolphe Quetelet was an influential scientist whose controversial work was condemned by John Stuart Mill and Charles Dickens. He was in contact with many Victorian elite, including Babbage, Herschel and Faraday. This is the first scholarly biography of Quetelet, exploring his contribution to quantitative reasoning and place in intellectual history.
Download or read book A Treatise on Man and the Development of His Faculties written by Adolphe Quetelet and published by . This book was released on 1842 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book How Data Happened A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms written by Chris Wiggins and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2023-03-21 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Fascinating.” —Jill Lepore, The New Yorker A sweeping history of data and its technical, political, and ethical impact on our world. From facial recognition—capable of checking people into flights or identifying undocumented residents—to automated decision systems that inform who gets loans and who receives bail, each of us moves through a world determined by data-empowered algorithms. But these technologies didn’t just appear: they are part of a history that goes back centuries, from the census enshrined in the US Constitution to the birth of eugenics in Victorian Britain to the development of Google search. Expanding on the popular course they created at Columbia University, Chris Wiggins and Matthew L. Jones illuminate the ways in which data has long been used as a tool and a weapon in arguing for what is true, as well as a means of rearranging or defending power. They explore how data was created and curated, as well as how new mathematical and computational techniques developed to contend with that data serve to shape people, ideas, society, military operations, and economies. Although technology and mathematics are at its heart, the story of data ultimately concerns an unstable game among states, corporations, and people. How were new technical and scientific capabilities developed; who supported, advanced, or funded these capabilities or transitions; and how did they change who could do what, from what, and to whom? Wiggins and Jones focus on these questions as they trace data’s historical arc, and look to the future. By understanding the trajectory of data—where it has been and where it might yet go—Wiggins and Jones argue that we can understand how to bend it to ends that we collectively choose, with intentionality and purpose.
Download or read book Politics Statistics and Weather Forecasting 1840 1910 written by Aitor Anduaga and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-07-12 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Weather forecasting is the most visible branch of meteorology and has its modern roots in the nineteenth century when scientists redefined meteorology in the way weather forecasts were made, developing maps of isobars, or lines of equal atmospheric pressure, as the main forecasting tool. This book is the history of how weather forecasting was moulded and modelled by the processes of nation-state building and statistics in the Western world.
Download or read book Victorians and Numbers written by Lawrence Goldman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A defining feature of Victorian Britain was its fascination with statistics, and this study shows how data influenced every aspect of Victorian culture and thought, from the methods of natural science and the struggle against disease, to the development of social administration, and the arguments and conflicts between social classes.
Download or read book Historical and Conceptual Foundations of Measurement in the Human Sciences written by Derek C. Briggs and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2021-11-15 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historical and Conceptual Foundations of Measurement in the Human Sciences explores the assessment and measurement of nonphysical attributes that define human beings: abilities, personalities, attitudes, dispositions, and values. The proposition that human attributes are measurable remains controversial, as do the ideas and innovations of the six historical figures—Gustav Fechner, Francis Galton, Alfred Binet, Charles Spearman, Louis Thurstone, and S. S. Stevens—at the heart of this book. Across 10 rich, elaborative chapters, readers are introduced to the origins of educational and psychological scaling, mental testing, classical test theory, factor analysis, and diagnostic classification and to controversies spanning the quantity objection, the role of measurement in promoting eugenics, theories of intelligence, the measurement of attitudes, and beyond. Graduate students, researchers, and professionals in educational measurement and psychometrics will emerge with a deeper appreciation for both the challenges and the affordances of measurement in quantitative research.
Download or read book Pioneers of Sociological Science written by John H. Goldthorpe and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-18 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study of pioneers of the field, Goldthorpe explains how present-day sociological science developed from the seventeenth century onwards. It will appeal to students and scholars of sociology and to anyone engaged in social science research, from statisticians to social historians.
Download or read book Sociology and Statistics in Britain 1833 1979 written by Plamena Panayotova and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the beginning of the twentieth century, Britain stood at the forefront of science and statistics and had a long and respected tradition of social investigation and reform. But it still did not yet have a ‘science of society.’ When, in the early 1900s, a small band of enthusiasts got together to address this situation, the scene was set for a grand synthesis. No such synthesis ever took place and, instead, British sociology has followed a resolutely non-statistical path. Sociology and Statistics in Britain, 1833-1979 investigates how this curious situation came about and attempts to explain it from an historical perspective. It uncovers the prevalence of a deep and instinctive distrust within British sociology of the statistical methodology and mindset, resulting in a mix of quiet indifference and active hostility, which has persisted from its beginnings right up to the present day. While British sociology has thrived institutionally since the post-war expansion of higher education, this book asks whether or not it is poorer for having failed to recognise that statistics provides the foundations for the scientific study of society and for having missed opportunities to build upon those foundations. Ultimately, this important, revealing and timely book is about British sociology’s refusal to come to grips with a modern scientific way of thinking which no discipline that aspires to an effective study of society can afford to ignore.
Download or read book The History of Sociology in Britain written by Plamena Panayotova and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many years, the history of British Sociology has been a neglected area of study among sociologists. In more recent times, there are signs of a growing curiosity among British sociologists about their subject’s origins and development. This collection sets out both to encourage and satisfy that curiosity while recognising the value of history as a teaching tool that can be used to inspire young sociology students and furnish them with a deeper understanding of the development of British sociology. The volume contains essays by distinguished sociologists and historians who discuss British sociology’s controversial origins, the neglected legacies of several individuals and institutions, the history of how the discipline was taught in the UK throughout the twentieth century, and its peculiar relationships with statistics and the humanities. The History of Sociology in Britain reveals the distinct character of British sociology through the course of its historical evolution. It is an original contribution and valuable addition to the field which intersects with historiography, epistemology and literature.
Download or read book Engaged Criminology written by Rena C. Zito and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2022-11-15 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Engaged Criminology invites students to learn and think like a criminologist by incorporating real-life examples and hands-on activities that get students doing criminology rather than just retaining definitions.
Download or read book The Descent of Artificial Intelligence written by Kevin Padraic Donnelly and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2024-07-15 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea that a new technology could challenge human intelligence is as old as the warning from Socrates and Plato that written language eroded memory. With the emergence of generative artificial intelligence programs, we find ourselves once again debating how a new technology might influence human thought and behavior. Researchers, software developers, and “visionary” tech writers even imagine an AI that will equal or surpass human intelligence, adding to a sense of technological determinism where humanity is inexorably shaped by powerful new machines. But among the hundreds of essays, books, and movies that approach the question of AI, few have asked how exactly scientists and philosophers have codified human thought and behavior. Rather than focusing on technical contributions in machine building, The Descent of Artificial Intelligence explores a more diverse cast of thinkers who helped to imagine the very kind of human being that might be challenged by a machine. Kevin Padraic Donnelly argues that what we often think of as the “goal” of AI has in fact been shaped by forgotten and discredited theories about people and human nature as much as it has been by scientific discoveries, mathematical advances, and novel technologies. By looking at the development of artificial intelligence through the lens of social thought, Donnelly deflates the image of artificial intelligence as a technological monolith and reminds readers that we can control the narratives about ourselves.
Download or read book Never Mind the B ll cks Here s the Science written by Luke O'Neill and published by Gill & Macmillan Ltd. This book was released on 2020-10-02 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this fascinating and thought-provoking book, Ireland's favourite scientist Professor Luke O'Neill grapples with life's biggest questions and tells us what science has to say about them: DO WE HAVE CONTROL OVER OUR LIVES? CAN WE ESCAPE WORKING IN BULLSH*T JOBS? MUST WE VACCINATE? ARE MEN'S AND WOMEN'S BRAINS DIFFERENT? WILL WE DESTROY THE PLANET? As he covers topics such as global pandemics, addiction and euthanasia, Luke's trademark easy wit and clever pop-culture references deconstruct the science to make complex questions accessible. Arriving at science's definitive answers to some of the most controversial issues human beings have to contend with, Never Mind the B#ll*cks, Here's the Science is a celebration of science and hard facts in a time of fake news and sometimes unhelpful groupthink.
Download or read book Face written by Jessica Helfand and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An elaborately illustrated A to Z of the face, from historical mugshots to Instagram posts. By turns alarming and awe-inspiring, Face offers up an elaborately illustrated A to Z—from the didactic anthropometry of the late-nineteenth century to the selfie-obsessed zeitgeist of the twenty-first. Jessica Helfand looks at the cultural significance of the face through a critical lens, both as social currency and as palimpsest of history. Investigating everything from historical mugshots to Instagram posts, she examines how the face has been perceived and represented over time; how it has been instrumentalized by others; and how we have reclaimed it for our own purposes. From vintage advertisements for a “nose adjuster” to contemporary artists who reconsider the visual construction of race, Face delivers an intimate yet kaleidoscopic adventure while posing universal questions about identity.
Download or read book Rumbles written by Elsa Richardson and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2024-05-09 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Financial Times most anticipated read for 2024 'A fascinating, erudite and entertaining journey through the gut-brain connection' TIFFANY WATT SMITH, author of The Book of Human Emotions 'A thrilling and surprising journey into the science and culture of an organ that refuses to be civilised' PAUL CRADDOCK, author of Spare Parts Have you ever had a gut feeling? Found something hard to stomach? Have you gone belly up under pressure? Did you pull yourself together and show some guts? The growls and gurgles of our digestive system are a constant reminder of the physical work it does to keep our bodies running. But throughout history, humans have puzzled over how this rowdy organ might influence us in other ways, from our emotional states and mental well-being to the decisions we make and even our sense of self. Through Ancient Greece and Victorian England, eighteenth-century France and contemporary America, cultural historian Elsa Richardson leads us on a lively tour of all the ways we've tried to make sense of this endlessly fascinating (and sometimes embarrassing) body part. From etiquette guides and diet advice to medieval alchemy and microbiology, she reveals that the gut-brain connection may be a modern obsession, but the question of whether we are ruled by our stomachs is as old as humanity itself.
Download or read book Econophysics and Physical Economics written by Peter Richmond and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-05 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book summarises progress in the understanding of financial markets and economics based on the established methodology of statistical physics. It offers a new approach to the fundamentals of economics that offers the potential for increased insight and understanding. It should be of interest to all serious students of the subject.
Download or read book The Cambridge History of Science Volume 8 Modern Science in National Transnational and Global Context written by Hugh Richard Slotten and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-09 with total page 1046 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume in the highly respected Cambridge History of Science series is devoted to exploring the history of modern science using national, transnational, and global frames of reference. Organized by topic and culture, its essays by distinguished scholars offer the most comprehensive and up-to-date nondisciplinary history of modern science currently available. Essays are grouped together in separate sections that represent larger regions: Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, East and Southeast Asia, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, and Latin America. Each of these regional groupings ends with a separate essay reflecting on the analysis in the preceding chapters. Intended to provide a balanced and inclusive treatment of the modern world, contributors analyze the history of science not only in local, national, and regional contexts but also with respect to the circulation of knowledge, tools, methods, people, and artifacts across national borders.
