The triumph of numbers : how counting shaped modern life / [print]
I. Bernard Cohen.
- New York : W.W. Norton, (c)2005.
- 209 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
1. A world of numbers -- Numbers everywhere -- Numbers in history -- Numbers in the Bible : the sin of King David -- Consequences of David's sin -- 2. New worlds based on numbers -- Kepler's harmonic law -- Galileo and the laws of motion -- Numbers in the life sciences : does the blood circulate? -- A first exercise in demography : how many people can the Earth support? -- The need for life tables -- A new world of numbers -- Sir William Petty and political arithmetic -- 3. Numerology and mystic philosophy : scientists at play with numbers -- What's in a name? : converting names into numbers -- Numerology in science -- A crusader against numerological superstitions -- 4. Numbers in the age of reason -- Hutcheson's moral arithmetic -- Hale's numerical plant and animal science -- Thomas Jefferson : a life regulated by numbers -- Benjamin Franklin and numbers -- Franklin and Malthus -- Franklin on numbers and smallpox -- 5. New uses for numbers -- Numbers and measures -- A concern with numbers in France : Lavoisier's essay on political arithmetic -- Sir John Sinclair's census of Scotland -- Pinel's medical numbers -- Louis and the numerical method -- New uses for numbers : innovations by Condorcet and Laplace -- 6. A deluge of statistics -- Tables galore -- Guerry's studies of crime -- 7. Statistics reaches maturity : the age of Quetelet -- Numbers, number science, and Joyce's Ulysses -- Quetelet's world of numbers -- The budget of crimes -- The reliability of statistics -- Comte versus Quetelet : social physics, or sociology? -- What did Quetelet accomplish? -- 8. Critics of statistics -- Carlyle and Chartism -- Dickens and statistics -- The Mudfog Association for the Advancement of Everything -- "Death's ciphering book" -- Corresponding disdain -- Facts and figures : the message of Hard times -- 9. Florence Nightingale -- Sanitary reform : the evidence of the numbers -- A passion for statistics.
The Triumph of Numbers explores how numbers have come to assume a leading role in just about everywhere in science, in the operations and s tructure of government, in the analysis of society, in marketing, in sports, and more.