Quetelet and the emergence of the behavioral sciences
Jahoda, Gustav (2015) Quetelet and the emergence of the behavioral sciences. SpringerPlus, 4 (1). 473. ISSN 2193-1801
Preview |
Text (Jahoda-SP2015-Quetelet-and-the-emergence-of-the-behavioral-sciences)
Jahoda_SP2015_Quetelet_and_the_emergence_of_the_behavioral_sciences.pdf Final Published Version License: 
Download (1MB)| Preview |
Abstract
Adolphe Quetelet was one of the most prominent figures of the second half of the nineteenth century, yet in present-day histories of several social sciences the impact of his ideas is widely ignored. The first part consists of a sketch of his life and work. Astronomer and statistician, he sought to apply the mathematical tools of astronomy to create was has been called a ‘mathematics of society’. In particular he demonstrated regularities in the incidence of various social phenomena, notably crime, whose implications were widely debated. In the second part the influence he exerted on some key figures in the then emerging social sciences is traced in some detail; these figures include Durkheim, Galton, Marx, and Tylor. He also advocated the wider use of statistics and his call had a powerful impact on the then emerging fields such as administration, economics, sociology and psychology. He influenced some of his most famous contemporaries, including Florence Nightingale, Karl Marx and Francis Galton.
Item type: Article ID code: 54331 Dates: DateEvent4 September 2015Published20 August 2015AcceptedKeywords: behavioural sciences, determinism, influence, nineteenth century, Quetelet forgotten, statistics, Social Sciences, Psychology, Social Sciences(all), Psychology (miscellaneous) Subjects: Social Sciences
Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > PsychologyDepartment: UNSPECIFIED Depositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 21 Sep 2015 14:15 Last modified: 14 Jun 2021 00:33 Related URLs: URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/54331
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)