16th/17th-century origins, F. Galton, linguistic systems, model construction
Samenvatting
An attempt is made to clarify the conceptual confusion surrounding the dispute over qualitative vs quantitative sociology. It is noted that quantitative & mathematical sociology go hand in hand, & that the latter is far older than academic sociology & can already be found in England in the sixteenth & seventeenth centuries, when it was largely confined to demographic studies. Modern statistical studies originate with the British biologist F. Galton in 1888. With respect to the application of mathematics, sociology today can be divided into two parts: the elaboration of linguistic systems & the construction of models. The first area uses mathematical logic, set theory, game theory, graph theory, information theory, & mathematical linguistics; the second uses techniques designed to evaluate how closely a set of data matches a model. Models can be predictive or interpretive, deterministic or stochastic, static or dynamic. They have a specific field of application, & make use of specific algorithms & analysis methods. The techniques used are derived from statistics, error analysis, sensitivity analysis, linear algebra, & calculus. Sociological fields in which mathematics is of most use are: demography, social geography, social psychology, & econometrics. A. Orianne.
