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

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    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:
      Date
      Event
      4 September 2015
      Published
      20 August 2015
      Accepted
      Keywords:behavioural sciences, determinism, influence, nineteenth century, Quetelet forgotten, statistics, Social Sciences, Psychology, Social Sciences(all), Psychology (miscellaneous), SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
      Subjects:Social Sciences
      Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > Psychology
      Department:UNSPECIFIED
      Depositing user: Pure Administrator
      Date deposited:21 Sep 2015 14:15
      Last modified:23 Sep 2021 05:15
      Related URLs:
      URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/54331
    CORE (COnnecting REpositories)