DOCSLIB.ORG

Theodor M. Porter Trust Un Numbers, 1995, Princeton

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Theodor M. Porter Trust Un Numbers, 1995, Princeton TRUST IN NUMBERS This page intentionally left blank TRUST IN NUMBERS THE PURSUIT OF OBJECTIVITY IN SCIENCE AND PUBLIC LIFE Theodore M. Porter PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON,NEW JERSEY Copyright 1995 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Chichester, West Sussex All Rights Reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Porter, Theodore, 1953– Trust in numbers : the pursuit of objectivity in science and public life / Theodore M. Porter. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-691-03776-0 1. Science—Social aspects. 2. Objectivity. I. Title. Q175.5.P67 1995 306.4′5—dc20 94-21440 This book has been composed in Galliard Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources 13579108642 Contents Preface vii Acknowledgments xiii Introduction Cultures of Objectivity 3 PART I: POWER IN NUMBERS 9 Chapter One A World of Artifice 11 Chapter Two How Social Numbers Are Made Valid 33 Chapter Three Economic Measurement and the Values of Science 49 Chapter Four The Political Philosophy of Quantification 73 PART II: TECHNOLOGIES OF TRUST 87 Chapter Five Experts against Objectivity: Accountants and Actuaries 89 Chapter Six French State Engineers and the Ambiguities of Technocracy 114 Chapter Seven U.S. Army Engineers and the Rise of Cost-Benefit Analysis 148 PART III: POLITICAL AND SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITIES 191 Chapter Eight Objectivity and the Politics of Disciplines 193 Chapter Nine Is Science Made by Communities? 217 Notes 233 Bibliography 269 Index 303 This page intentionally left blank Preface SCIENCE is commonly regarded these days with a mixture of admiration and fear. Until very recently, though, English-language historians of sci- ence were more likely to resent its pretensions than to fear its power. Here resentment grew out of reverence. Karl Popper and Alexandre Koyré, who gave form to brilliant traditions in the philosophy and his- tory of science beginning especially in the 1950s, agreed that science was about ideas and theories. Koyré gave priority to thought experi- ments over the work of hands and instruments, and wondered, fa- mously, if Galileo had ever performed any experiments at all. Popper allowed that experimentation could falsify theories, but held that the real work was done when the theory was adequately articulated. Experi- menters had no more than to carry out what the theory dictated. Both praised science as a model of intellectual and philosophical achievement. Neither provided any reason for thinking that science could have much to do with technology. Still less could the hierarchical imagination of the historian or philosopher of science conceive that social science was authentically powerful. This problem of the relations of science to technology inspired noth- ing like the heated (and, it now seems, empty and incoherent) contro- versy over the relative merits of “externalist” and “internalist” explana- tions of scientific change. Rather than arguing, much of the profession took for granted that science had the loosest connections with the prac- tical world of engineering, production, and administration. In retro- spect, I can see that my graduate training provided ample opportunity to form a more judicious view. My teachers learned earlier than I did to appreciate the limitations of seeing the scientific enterprise mainly as a pursuit of theory. Still, I think I was not unusual among historians of science of my generation in thinking that the widespread linking of science and technology or of science and administrative expertise in- volved something fundamentally spurious, that these supposed connec- tions brought undeserved credit to each enterprise by making science seem more practical and its “applications” more intellectual than either really is. A critique of this nature underlay my original formulation of this proj- ect. I planned to examine the history of neoclassical economics, the most mathematical of social science disciplines—indeed, possibly the most mathematical of all disciplines. Economics values most highly this supremely abstract mathematics, yet somehow economists sustain the viii PREFACE image of a discipline capable of telling businesses and governments how to manage their affairs more effectively. I expected to show through an analysis of the relations of economics to policy that academic economics was a kind of sport, empty of implications for economic practice. That is not the book I have written. It didn’t take long to realize that neoclassical economics has had many critics who were better informed than I was likely to become. I found also that the economics discipline involves a greater variety of tools, aims, and practices than I had appreci- ated, and while I still think there is need for a more profound consider- ation of the relations between economic mathematics and the practices that support forecasting and policy advice, I am not the one to under- take it. In any case, my earlier suspicion that mathematics and policy were almost independent worked badly as a way of formulating a histor- ical project. Its validity was even more damaging than its shortcomings. If, indeed, neoclassical mathematics is irrelevant to the economic world, my history of the relations between economics and policy would turn into the history of nothing at all. So I have taken here a different tack. The interpenetration of science and technology, I now concede, is unmistakable, especially in the cur- rent century. That of social knowledge and social policy is only slightly less so. How are we to account for the prestige and power of quantita- tive methods in the modern world? The usual answer, given by apolo- gists and critics alike, is that quantification became a desideratum of so- cial and economic investigation as a result of its successes in the study of nature. I am not content with this answer. It is not quite empty, but it begs some crucial questions. Why should the kind of success achieved in the study of stars, molecules, or cells have come to seem an attractive model for research on human societies? And, indeed, how should we understand the near ubiquity of quantification in the sciences of nature? I intend this book to display the advantages of pointing the arrow of explanation in the opposite direction. When we begin to comprehend the overwhelming appeal of quantification in business, government, and social research, we will also have learned something new about its role in physical chemistry and ecology. My approach here is to regard numbers, graphs, and formulas first of all as strategies of communication. They are intimately bound up with forms of community, and hence also with the social identity of the re- searchers. To argue this way does not imply that they have no validity in relation to the objects they describe, or that science could do just as well without them. The first assertion is plainly wrong, while the latter is ab- surd or meaningless. Yet only a very small proportion of the numbers and quantitative expressions loose in the world today make any pretense of embodying laws of nature, or even of providing complete and accu- PREFACE ix rate descriptions of the external world. They are printed to convey re- sults in a familiar, standardized form, or to explain how a piece of work was done in a way that can be understood far away. They conveniently summarize a multitude of complex events and transactions. Vernacular languages are also available for communication. What is special about the language of quantity? My summary answer to this crucial question is that quantification is a technology of distance. The language of mathematics is highly struc- tured and rule-bound. It exacts a severe discipline from its users, a disci- pline that is very nearly uniform over most of the globe. That discipline did not come automatically, and to some degree it is the aspiration to a severe discipline, especially in education, that has given shape to modern mathematics.1 Also, the rigor and uniformity of quantitative technique often nearly disappear in relatively private or informal settings. In public and scientific uses, though, mathematics (even more, perhaps, than law) has long been almost synonymous with rigor and universality. Since the rules for collecting and manipulating numbers are widely shared, they can easily be transported across oceans and continents and used to co- ordinate activities or settle disputes. Perhaps most crucially, reliance on numbers and quantitative manipulation minimizes the need for intimate knowledge and personal trust. Quantification is well suited for commu- nication that goes beyond the boundaries of locality and community. A highly disciplined discourse helps to produce knowledge independent of the particular people who make it. This last phrase points to my working definition of objectivity. It is, from the philosophical standpoint, a weak definition. It implies nothing about truth to nature. It has more to do with the exclusion of judgment, the struggle against subjectivity. This impersonality has long been taken to be one of the hallmarks of science. My work broadly supports that identification and tends to the view that this, more than anything else, accounts for the authority of scientific pronouncements in contempo- rary political life. Once again, though, I am reluctant to make science the unmoved mover in this drive for objectivity. In science, as in political and administrative affairs, objectivity names a set of strategies for dealing with distance and distrust. If the laboratory, like the old-regime village, is the site of personal knowledge, the discipline, like the centralized state, depends on a more public form of knowing and communicating. Quantification is preeminent among the means by which science has been constructed as a global network rather than merely a collection of local research communities.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • An Analytical Introduction to Descriptive Geometry
    An analytical introduction to Descriptive Geometry Adrian B. Biran, Technion { Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Ruben Lopez-Pulido, CEHINAV, Polytechnic University of Madrid, Model Basin, and Spanish Association of Naval Architects Avraham Banai Technion { Faculty of Mathematics Prepared for Elsevier (Butterworth-Heinemann), Oxford, UK Samples - August 2005 Contents Preface x 1 Geometric constructions 1 1.1 Introduction . 2 1.2 Drawing instruments . 2 1.3 A few geometric constructions . 2 1.3.1 Drawing parallels . 2 1.3.2 Dividing a segment into two . 2 1.3.3 Bisecting an angle . 2 1.3.4 Raising a perpendicular on a given segment . 2 1.3.5 Drawing a triangle given its three sides . 2 1.4 The intersection of two lines . 2 1.4.1 Introduction . 2 1.4.2 Examples from practice . 2 1.4.3 Situations to avoid . 2 1.5 Manual drawing and computer-aided drawing . 2 i ii CONTENTS 1.6 Exercises . 2 Notations 1 2 Introduction 3 2.1 How we see an object . 3 2.2 Central projection . 4 2.2.1 De¯nition . 4 2.2.2 Properties . 5 2.2.3 Vanishing points . 17 2.2.4 Conclusions . 20 2.3 Parallel projection . 23 2.3.1 De¯nition . 23 2.3.2 A few properties . 24 2.3.3 The concept of scale . 25 2.4 Orthographic projection . 27 2.4.1 De¯nition . 27 2.4.2 The projection of a right angle . 28 2.5 The two-sheet method of Monge . 36 2.6 Summary . 39 2.7 Examples . 43 2.8 Exercises .
    [Show full text]
  • Thérèse of Lisieux: God's Gentle Warrior
    Thérèse of Lisieux: God’s Gentle Warrior THOMAS R. NEVIN OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS The´re`se of Lisieux The´re`se of Lisieux God’s Gentle Warrior thomas r. nevin 1 2006 3 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright # 2006 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Frontispiece: The´re`se in 1895, the year of ‘‘Vivre d’Amour,’’ the offrande, and her first autobiographical manuscript. Copyright Office Central de Lisieux. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nevin, Thomas R., 1944– The´re`se of Lisieux : God’s gentle warrior / Thomas R. Nevin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13 978-0-19-530721-4 ISBN 0-19-530721-6 1. The´re`se, de Lisieux, Saint, 1873–1897. 2. Christian saints—France— Lisieux—Biography. 3. Lisieux (France)—Biography. I. Title.
    [Show full text]
  • David Eugene Smith Collection
    Ms Coll\Smith,D.E.\Historical Smith, David Eugene, 1860-1944, collector. Historical papers, [ca. 1400-1899] 17.5 linear ft.(ca. 10,100 items in 31 boxes) Biography: Mathematician. Professor of mathematics at the State Normal School, Cortland, N.Y., 1884-1891; at Michigan State Normal College, 1891-1898; at New York State Normal School, Brockport, N.Y., 1898-1901; and at Teachers College, Columbia University, 1901-1944. He was the editor of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, the American Mathematical Monthly, and Scripta Mathematica, a member of the International Commission on the Teaching of Mathematics, 1908-1944; and librarian of Teachers College, 1902-1920. He was the author of Rara Mathemativca (1907), The History of Mathematics (1924), and many other works on the history of mathematics as well as over forty mathematical textbooks and numerous journal articles. He also collected manuscript materials relating to the history of mathematics. Summary: Correspondence, manuscripts, and documents of mathematicians and other scientists, often dealing with politics and fields other than mathematics. Many of these concern the French Revolution. Organization: Cataloged. * Alembert letters are available on microfilm (MN#2000-1207). Lalande letters are available on microfilm (MN#3605-4). Guillaume Libri letters are available in photocopy form. William John Clarke Miller are available on microfilm (MN#95-7023 to 95-2027). Gaspard Monge letters are available on microfilm (MN#80-1582). Selected Isaac Newton letters are available on microfilm (MN#3617-5). Selected Quetelet letters are available on microfilm (MN#3623-7). Finding aids: Contents list, 19p. Donor: Gift of David Eugene Smith, 1931.
    [Show full text]
  • Minard's Chart of Napolean's Campaign
    Minard's Chart of Napolean's Campaign Charles Joseph Minard (French: [minaʁ]; 27 March 1781 – 24 October 1870) was a French civil engineer recognized for his significant contribution in the field of information graphics in civil engineering and statistics. Minard was, among other things, noted for his representation of numerical data on geographic maps. Charles Minard's map of Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign of 1812. The graphic is notable for its representation in two dimensions of six types of data: the number of Napoleon's troops; distance; temperature; the latitude and longitude; direction of travel; and location relative to specific dates.[2] Wikipedia (n.d.). Charles Minard's 1869 chart showing the number of men in Napoleon’s 1812 Russian campaign army, their movements, as well as the temperature they encountered on the return path. File:Minard.png. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Minard.png The original description in French accompanying the map translated to English:[3] Drawn by Mr. Minard, Inspector General of Bridges and Roads in retirement. Paris, 20 November 1869. The numbers of men present are represented by the widths of the colored zones in a rate of one millimeter for ten thousand men; these are also written beside the zones. Red designates men moving into Russia, black those on retreat. — The informations used for drawing the map were taken from the works of Messrs. Thiers, de Ségur, de Fezensac, de Chambray and the unpublished diary of Jacob, pharmacist of the Army since 28 October. Recognition Modern information
    [Show full text]
  • Time and Animation
    TIME AND ANIMATION Petra Isenberg (&Pierre Dragicevic) TIME VISUALIZATION ANIMATION 2 TIME VISUALIZATION ANIMATION Time 3 VISUALIZATION OF TIME 4 TIME Is just another data dimension Why bother? 5 TIME Is just another data dimension Why bother? What data type is it? • Nominal? • Ordinal? • Quantitative? 6 TIME Ordinal Quantitative • Discrete • Continuous Aigner et al, 2011 7 TIME Joe Parry, 2007. Adapted from Mackinlay, 1986 8 TIME Periodicity • Natural: days, seasons • Social: working hours, holidays • Biological: circadian, etc. Has many subdivisions (units) • Years, months, days, weeks, H, M, S Has a specific meaning • Not captured by data type • Associations, conventions • Pervasive in the real-world • Time visualizations often considered as a separate type 9 TIME Shneiderman: • 1-dimensional data • 2-dimensional data • 3-dimensional data • temporal data • multi-dimensional data • tree data • network data 10 VISUALIZING TIME as a time point 11 VISUALIZING TIME as a time period 12 VISUALIZING TIME as a duration 13 VISUALIZING TIME PLUS DATA 14 MAPPING TIME TO SPACE 15 MAPPING TIME TO AN AXIS Time Data 16 TIME-SERIES DATA From a Statistics Book: • A set of observations xt, each one being recorded at a specific time t From Wikipedia: • A sequence of data points, measured typically at successive time instants spaced at uniform time intervals 17 LINE CHARTS Aigner et al, 2011 18 LINE CHARTS Marey’s Physiological Recordings Plethysmograph Étienne-Jules Marey, 1876 (image source) Pneumogram Étienne-Jules Marey, 1876 (image source) 19 LINE CHARTS Pendulum Seismometer (image source) Andrea Bina, 1751 Possibly also 17th century (source) 20 LINE CHARTS Inclinations of planetary orbits Macrobius, 10th or 11th century cited in Kendall, 1990 21 Marey’s Train Schedule LINE CHARTS 6 PARIS LYON 7 22 Étienne-Jules Marey, 1885, cited in Tufte, 1983 OTHER CHARTS Line Plots Point Plots Silhouette Graphs Bar Charts Aigner et al, 2011 23 OTHER CHARTS Combination - New York Times Weather Chart New York Times, 1980.
    [Show full text]
  • Defining Visual Rhetorics §
    DEFINING VISUAL RHETORICS § DEFINING VISUAL RHETORICS § Edited by Charles A. Hill Marguerite Helmers University of Wisconsin Oshkosh LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS 2004 Mahwah, New Jersey London This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Copyright © 2004 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers 10 Industrial Avenue Mahwah, New Jersey 07430 Cover photograph by Richard LeFande; design by Anna Hill Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Definingvisual rhetorics / edited by Charles A. Hill, Marguerite Helmers. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8058-4402-3 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 0-8058-4403-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Visual communication. 2. Rhetoric. I. Hill, Charles A. II. Helmers, Marguerite H., 1961– . P93.5.D44 2003 302.23—dc21 2003049448 CIP ISBN 1-4106-0997-9 Master e-book ISBN To Anna, who inspires me every day. —C. A. H. To Emily and Caitlin, whose artistic perspective inspires and instructs. —M. H. H. Contents Preface ix Introduction 1 Marguerite Helmers and Charles A. Hill 1 The Psychology of Rhetorical Images 25 Charles A. Hill 2 The Rhetoric of Visual Arguments 41 J. Anthony Blair 3 Framing the Fine Arts Through Rhetoric 63 Marguerite Helmers 4 Visual Rhetoric in Pens of Steel and Inks of Silk: 87 Challenging the Great Visual/Verbal Divide Maureen Daly Goggin 5 Defining Film Rhetoric: The Case of Hitchcock’s Vertigo 111 David Blakesley 6 Political Candidates’ Convention Films:Finding the Perfect 135 Image—An Overview of Political Image Making J.
    [Show full text]
  • The Scientific Rationality of Early Statistics, 1833–1877
    The Scientific Rationality of Early Statistics, 1833–1877 Yasuhiro Okazawa St Catharine’s College This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. November 2018 Declaration Declaration This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my dissertation has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text It does not exceed the prescribed word limit of 80,000 words for the Degree Committee of the Faculty of History. Yasuhiro Okazawa 13 November 2018 i Thesis Summary The Scientific Rationality of Early Statistics, 1833–1877 Yasuhiro Okazawa Summary This thesis examines the activities of the Statistical Society of London (SSL) and its contribution to early statistics—conceived as the science of humans in society—in Britain. The SSL as a collective entity played a crucial role in the formation of early statistics, as statisticians envisaged early statistics as a collaborative scientific project and prompted large-scale observation, which required cooperation among numerous statistical observers.
    [Show full text]
  • The Forgotten Discovery of Gravity Models and the Inefficiency of Early
    The forgotten discovery of gravity models and the inefficiency of early railway networks Andrew Odlyzko School of Mathematics University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA [email protected] http://www.dtc.umn.edu/∼odlyzko Revised version, April 19, 2015 Abstract. The routes of early railways around the world were generally inef- ficient because of the incorrect assumption that long distance travel between major cities would dominate. Modern planners rely on methods such as the “gravity models of spatial interaction,” which show quantitatively the impor- tance of accommodating travel demands between smaller cities. Such models were not used in the 19th century. This paper shows that gravity models were discovered in 1846, a dozen years earlier than had been known previously. That discovery was published during the great Railway Mania in Britain. Had the validity and value of gravity models been recognized properly, the investment losses of that gigantic bubble could have been lessened, and more efficient rail systems in Britain and many other countries would have been built. This incident shows society’s early encounter with the “Big Data” of the day and the slow diffusion of economically significant information. The results of this study suggest that it will be increasingly feasible to use modern network science to analyze information dissemination in the 19th century. That might assist in understanding the diffusion of technologies and the origins of bubbles. Keywords: gravity models, railway planning, diffusion of information JEL classification codes: D8, L9, N7 1 Introduction Dramatic innovations in transportation or communication frequently produce predictions that distance is becoming irrelevant. In recent decades, two popular books in this genre introduced the concepts of “death of distance” [7] and “the Earth is flat” [25].
    [Show full text]
  • Groups Sales Manual 2021
    Groups sales Groupes manual 20212021 HÉBERGEACCOMMODATIONMENT RESTAURATIO N RESTAURANTS HÉBERGEMENT R VISITSESTAURA TIO N LEISURE HÉBER GEMENT TOURIST TAX - 2020 Rates Hotels, tourist residences, furnished tourist accommodation: : **** € 1 / *** € 0.80 / ** € 0.65 / * € 0.50 / Unclassified: 4.5% of the cost (excluding VAT) per person per night, up to a maximum of €1.80 Bed and Breakfast: €0.50 Lift Credit cards accepted Air conditioning Night guard Disabled access with assistance Garage Change Swimming pool WiFi access Parking Television in the room Sauna Evening meal Communication Service Lisieux Normandy - Photo credit Lisieux Normandy - Mentioned sites - Printing: Marie Honfleur’s Printing Company - November 2020 Sales manual 2021 ACCOMMODATION Restaurants Authentic Normandy | Sales manual 2021 | 3 HOTELS Half- Additional Free of Rooms Prices* Services LISIEUX board single charge VILLA DES ARTS **** 2 avenue Victor Hugo 14100 LISIEUX € 99 17 + € 39 - - T. 02 61 75 00 65 € 139 [email protected] | www.villadesarts-hotel.fr GRAND HÔTEL DE L’ESPÉRANCE *** (closed from the end of October to the beginning of April) € 60 16 boulevard Sainte-Anne 14100 LISIEUX 92 € 49 € 35/39 1/20 € 69 T. 02 31 62 17 53 - F. 02 31 62 34 00 [email protected] | www.lisieux-hotel.com KYRIAD Groupe Louvre Hôtel *** 984 avenue Georges Duval 14100 LISIEUX from from Driver and 49 € 24 T. 02 31 62 20 01 € 39.90 € 58.90 guide [email protected] | www.kyriad-lisieux.fr HÔTEL MERCURE Accor Group*** 117 rue Roger Aini 14100 LISIEUX from from 71 € 27 1/20 T. 02 31 61 17 17 - F. 02 31 32 33 43 € 42.80 € 60.80 [email protected] | www.hotellisieux.com LA COUPE D’OR *** 49 rue Pont-Mortain 14100 LISIEUX from 15 € 65 € 25 1/20 T.
    [Show full text]
  • Visions and Re-Visions of Charles Joseph Minard
    Visions and Re-Visions of Charles Joseph Minard Michael Friendly Psychology Department and Statistical Consulting Service York University 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON, Canada M3J 1P3 in: Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics. See also BIBTEX entry below. BIBTEX: @Article{ Friendly:02:Minard, author = {Michael Friendly}, title = {Visions and {Re-Visions} of {Charles Joseph Minard}}, year = {2002}, journal = {Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics}, volume = {27}, number = {1}, pages = {31--51}, } © copyright by the author(s) document created on: February 19, 2007 created from file: jebs.tex cover page automatically created with CoverPage.sty (available at your favourite CTAN mirror) JEBS, 2002, 27(1), 31–51 Visions and Re-Visions of Charles Joseph Minard∗ Michael Friendly York University Abstract Charles Joseph Minard is most widely known for a single work, his poignant flow-map depiction of the fate of Napoleon’s Grand Army in the disasterous 1812 Russian campaign. In fact, Minard was a true pioneer in thematic cartography and in statistical graphics; he developed many novel graphics forms to depict data, always with the goal to let the data “speak to the eyes.” This paper reviews Minard’s contributions to statistical graphics, the time course of his work, and some background behind the famous March on Moscow graphic. We also look at some modern re-visions of this graph from an information visualization perspecitive, and examine some lessons this graphic provides as a test case for the power and expressiveness of computer systems or languages for graphic information display and visual- ization. Key words: Statistical graphics; Data visualization, history; Napoleonic wars; Thematic car- tography; Dynamic graphics; Mathematica 1 Introduction RE-VISION n.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae Vincent JUGNON Education Work Experience
    Curriculum vitae Vincent JUGNON Nationality : French Born : 06/24/1985 Address : 25 Sciarappa Street Cambdridge MA 02141 USA Tel. : 857-308-0131 e-mail : [email protected] Education 09/2008-09/2011 Ecole Polytechnique, Paris Thesis in Applied Mathematics with Gaspard Monge international fellowship (advisor : Pr. Habib Ammari) Modeling and Simulation in Photoacoustics, defended in December 2010, Best Thesis Price awarded by Ecole Polytechnique Graduate School. 09/2007-09/2008 Universit´ePierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6 Research Masters Degree in Applied Mathematics ob- tained with highest honors. 09/2003-09/2008 National Institute of Applied Sciences, Lyon Engineer's degree in Biosciences. 06/2003 Baccalaur´eat s´erie Scientifique mention Tr`es Bien, Equivalent to an A level specialized in Science obtai- ned with highest honors. Work experience since 09/11 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Post-doctoral fellow at the Earth Resource Laboratory 07/05 and 07/06 Humanitarian Work in Mali with the association Lyon solidaire avec le Tiers Monde Publications 1. Detection, reconstruction, and characterization algorithms from noisy data in multistatic wave imaging. Submitted to Mathematics of Computation (with H. Ammari and J. Garnier). 2. Enhancement of near-cloaking. Part III : numerical simulations, statisti- cal stability, and related questions. Contemporary Mathematics, 577 (2012), 1-24 (with H. Ammari, J. Garnier, H. Kang, H. Lee, and M. Lim). 3. Stability and resolution analysis for a topological derivative based imaging functional. SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, 50 (2012), 48-76 (with H. Ammari, J. Garnier, and H. Kang). 4. Direct reconstruction methods in ultrasound imaging of small anomalies.
    [Show full text]
  • History Actuarial Science
    HISTORY OF ACTUARIAL SCIENCE Edited by STEVEN HABERMAN and TREVOR A. SIBBETT VOLUME I Life Tables and Survival Model Part 1 154 LONDON WILLIAM PICKERING 1995 VOLUME I CONTENTS Preface xvii The History of Actuarial Science v xix 1. 200 Domitius Ulpianus, Ulpian's Table 1 2. 1657 Company of Parish Clerks, London's Dreadful Visitation 7 3. 1662 John Graunt, Natural and Political Observations upon the Bills of Mortality 23 4. 1669 Christiaan and Ludwig Huygens, Extracts from Letters 129 5. 1671 Johande Witt, Value of Life Annuities 144 6. 1693 Edmund HaWey, An Estimate of the Degrees of the Mortality of Mankind 165 7. 1709 Nicholas Bernoulli, De Usu Artis Conjectandi injure 185 8. 1737 John Smart, A Letter to George Heathcote re Tables of Bills of Mortality 197 9. 1740 Nicholas Struyck, Appendix to Introduction to General Geography 207 10. 1746 Antoine Deparcieux, Table XIII from Essay on the Probabilities of the Duration of Human Life 243 11. 1761 Thomas Watkins, A Letter to William Brakenridge re the Terms and Period of Human Life 251 VOLUME I I CONTENTS 1. 1760 Leonhard Euler, A General Investigation into the Mortality and Multiplication of Human Species 1 2. 1766 Pehr Wargentin, Mortality in Sweden 11 3. 1783 Richard Price, Observations on Reversionary Payments 39 4. 1793 Edward Wigglesworth, A Table shewing the Expectation of Life in the States of Massachusetts and New Hampshire 71 5. 1815 Joshua Milne, A Treatise on the Valuation of Annuities and Assurances 79 6. 1825 Benjamin Gompertz, On the Nature of the Function expressive of the Law of Human Mortality 119 7.
    [Show full text]