Study week on the econometric approach to development planning

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1824422792

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-217476

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Study week on the econometric approach to development planning

Place of publication:: Amsterdam [u.a.]

Publisher:: North-Holland Publ. Co. [u.a.]

Year of publication:: 1965

Scope:: XLVII, 1259 S.; graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: The social transformation for national development / P.C. Mahalanobis, Indian Statistical Institue - Calcutta - India

Collection:: Economics Books

SEMAINE D'ÉTUDE SUR LE ROLE DE L'ANALYSE ECONOMETRIQUE ETC, 108; to be accepted not because such a decision is necessarily right, but because it is the decision of a superior authority (*). Society must accept this authority principle for stability and orderly progress, even in organised revolutionary activities. 3-3. This very authority principle must, however, be absol- ately and completely rejected in the field of science. Modern science is based on a patient accumulation of facts, on the study of processes and their interrelations or interactions and a stability or uniformity of nature (*) which can be discovered by ‘he human mind. The findings of the most eminent scientists are subject to critical check by their professional colleagues and by the youngest scientific workers, and must be rejected if there is no satisfactory corroboration. Science can advance only through free criticism on a completely democratic basis, with every research worker of competence enjoying equal status. The theoretical or conceptual framework of science must be (’) It is possible, indeed, that this decision itself would have been reversed if there had been a still higher court to which the case could be referred. If a decision of a higher court of appeal is considered to be like the turning up « heads » (in tossing an unbiased coin) when the decision upholds the verdict of the lower court, and is considered to be like the turning up of « tails » when the verdict of the lower court is reversed, then the successive decision of the higher court would look like the results of the tossing of a coin. This would be the real guarantee that the system of law is functioning properly. {} The phrase « uniformity of nature » must be, of course, inter- oreted to include chance events and random processes. Although games of chance were known and were widely prevalent in ancient times in Chira, [ndia and other countries, it is important to note that the concept of probability did not arise until the 16th and the 17th centuries, that is, not until the emergence of modern science. This in easy to understand. Before the emergence of the modern scientific view of an obiective world of physical reality, all chance events would have to be necessarily ascribed to the whims of gods, demons, or supernatural forces. After the emergence of the scientific view of an objective world of physical reality, it became necessary, both logically and psychologically, for the human mind to acco- mmodate the occurrence of chance event as an integral part of the unif- ormity of nature. This could be accomplished only on the basis of the theory of probability, or rather, as I should prefer to put it, only through a statistical view of the world. It seems to me, therefore, that the con- -ept of probability, of the statistical view of the world did arise at the same time as the emergence of modern science onlv because it could not possibly have arisen earlier. Mahalanobis I - pag. x Ly

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