Die Nationalökonomie in Frankreich

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 890892032

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-34137

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Waha, Raymund de http://d-nb.info/gnd/117560855

Title:: Die Nationalökonomie in Frankreich

Place of publication:: Stuttgart

Publisher:: Verlag von Ferdinand Enke

Year of publication:: 1910

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XIX, 540 Seiten)

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Contents

Collection:: Economics Books

THEORY OF STATISTICS. investigation of the motion of molecules”! have become part of the ordinary language of physicists. We find a work entitled “the principles of statistical mechanics”? and the Bakerian lecture for 1909, by Sir J. Larmor, was on “the statistical and thermodynamical relations of radiant energy.” 7. It is unnecessary to multiply such instances to show that the words statistics,” “statistical,” no longer bear any necessary reference to “ matters of state.” They are applied indifferently in physics, biology, anthropology, and meteorology, as well as in the social sciences. Diverse though these cases are, there must be some community of character between them, or the same terms and the same methods would not be applied. What, then, is this common character ? 8. Let us turn to social science, as the parent of the methods termed statistical,” for a moment, and consider its characteristics as compared, say, with physics or chemistry. One characteristic stands out so markedly that attention has been repeatedly directed to it by “statistical” writers as the source of the peculiar difficulties of their science—the observer of social Jacts cannot ex- pervment, but must deal with circumstances as they occur, apart Jrom his control. Now the object of experiment is to replace the complex systems of causation usually occurring in nature by simple systems in which only one causal circumstance is permitted to vary at a time. This simplification being impossible, the observer has, in general, to deal with highly complicated cases of multiple causation—cases in which a given result may be due to any one of a number of alternative causes or to a number of different causes acting conjointly. 9. A little consideration will show, however, that this is also precisely the characteristic of the observations in other fields to which statistical methods are applied. The meteorologist, for example, is in almost precisely the same position as the student of social science. He can experiment on minor points, but the records of the barometer, thermometer, and rain gauge have to be treated as they stand. With the biologist, matters are in some- what better case. He can and does apply experimental methods to a very large extent, but frequently cannot approximate closely to the experimental ideal ; the internal circumstances of animals and plants too easily evade complete control. Hence a large field (notably the study of variation and heredity) is left, in which statistical methods have either to aid or to replace the methods of experiment. The physicist and chemist, finally, 1 Clerk Maxwell, “Theory of Heat” (1871), and ‘‘On Boltzmann’s Theorem ” (1878), Camb. Phil. Trans., vol. xii. 2 By J. Willard Gibbs (Macmillan, 1902), 4

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