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8. THE METAPHYSICAL CLUB ~ August 12th - August 18th ~~ Part Three - Chapter Eight ~ (177 - 200) ~ The Law of Errors ~No-Spoilers, please
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Message One - on each non spoiler thread - will help you find all of the information that you need for each week's reading.
For Week Eight - for example, we are reading and discussing the following:
Week Eight - August 12th - August 18th
Part Three - Chapter Eight
The Law of Errors (177 - 200)
Please only discuss Chapter Eight through page 200 on this thread. However from now on you can also discuss any of the pages that came before this week's reading - including anything in the Preface or Introduction or anything in Chapter One through Chapter Seven. However the main focus of this week's discussion is Chapter Eight.
This is a non spoiler thread.
But we will have in this folder a whole bunch of spoiler threads dedicated to all of the pragmatists or other philosophers or philosophic movements which I will set up as we read along and on any of the additional spoiler threads - expansive discussions about each of the pragmatists/philosophers/philosophic movements can also take place on any of these respective threads. Spoiler threads are also clearly marked.
If you have any links, or ancillary information about anything dealing with the book itself feel free to add this to our Glossary thread.
If you have lists of books or any related books about the people discussed, or about the events or places discussed or any other ancillary information - please feel free to add all of this to the thread called - Bibliography.
If you would like to plan ahead and wonder what the syllabus is for the reading, please refer to the Table of Contents.
If you would like to write your review of the book and present your final thoughts because maybe you like to read ahead - the spoiler thread where you can do all of that is called Book as a Whole and Final Thoughts. You can also have expansive discussions there.
For all of the above - the links are always provided in message one.
Always go to message one of any thread to find out all of the important information you need.
Bentley will be moderating this book and Kathy will be the backup.
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Here are the rules and guidelines of the HBC:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...
Please on the non spoiler threads: a) Stick to material in the present week's reading.
Also, in terms of all of the threads for discussion here and on the HBC - please be civil.
We want our discussion to be interesting and fun.
Make sure to cite a book using the proper format.
You don't need to cite the Menand book, but if you bring another book into the conversation; please cite it accordingly as required.
Now we can begin week eight.....
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Chapter Eight: The Law of Errors
Part 2, Chapter 8 - The Law of Errors, Section One
In Chapter Eight, we are given a quick background of the people who had an influence on Benjamin Peirce (the father) and Charles Sanders Peirce (the son). We also learn what eventually led to Charles Sanders Peirce's interest in statistics. We are introduced also to Pierre-Simon Laplace and his theories. And we are introduced to the Probability Theory.
Part 2, Chapter 8 - The Law of Errors, Section Two
Benjamin Peirce was one of the most respected mathematicians and astronomers of the mid 19th century. But he was not infallible and followed some faulty mathematical rules and theories. Charles actually agreed with his father on a lot of things - so he too will enjoy a bit of notoriety about some of these beliefs.
Part 2, Chapter 8 - The Law of Errors, Section Three
The author Louis Menand wrote how the debate on race was a global one; not simply US based.
There were people from every country trying to prove their race was superior or that the races were not different at all. There was a plethora of conflicting and opposing hypotheses.
Both Benjamin Peirce and Charles Sanders Peirce indirectly helped the creation of pragmatism.
Part 2, Chapter 8 - The Law of Errors, Section Four
Louis Menand has now steered us in the direction of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel - we can see that the creation of the Metaphysical Club is right around the corner.
We are certain that Charles Sanders Peirce will be one of the founders. And we assume that the members of this group will help create the theory of "Pragmatism"; a new way of thinking about ideas, problems, choices and life.
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The Metaphysical Club
by John Shook
The Metaphysical Club was an informal discussion group of scholarly friends, close from their associations with Harvard University, that started in 1871 and continued until spring 1879.
This Club had two primary phases, distinguished from each other by the most active participants and the topics pursued.
The first phase of the Metaphysical Club lasted from 1871 until mid-1875, while the second phase existed from early 1876 until spring 1879. The dominant theme of first phase was pragmatism, while idealism dominated the second phase.
Pragmatism - First Phase:
The "pragmatist" first phase of the Metaphysical Club was organized by Charles Peirce (Harvard graduate and occasional lecturer), Chauncey Wright (Harvard graduate and occasional lecturer), and William James (Harvard graduate and instructor of physiology and psychology).
These three philosophers were then formulating recognizably pragmatist views. Other active members of the "Pragmatist" Metaphysical Club were two more Harvard graduates and local lawyers, Nicholas St. John Green and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who were also advocating pragmatic views of human conduct and law.
Idealist - Second Phase:
The "idealist" second phase of the Metaphysical Club was organized and led by idealists who showed no interest in pragmatism: Thomas Davidson (independent scholar), George Holmes Howison (professor of philosophy at nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and James Elliot Cabot (Harvard graduate and Emerson scholar). There was some continuity between the two phases.
Although Peirce had departed in April 1875 for a year in Europe, and Wright died in September 1875, most of the original members from the first phase were available for a renewed second phase.
By January 1876 the "Idealist" Metaphysical Club (for James still was referring to a metaphysical club in a letter of 10 February 1876) was meeting regularly for discussions first on Hume, then proceeding through Kant and Hegel in succeeding years.
Besides Davidson, Howison, and Cabot, the most active members appear to be William James, Charles Carroll Everett (Harvard graduate and Dean of its Divinity School), George Herbert Palmer (Harvard graduate and professor of philosophy), and Francis Ellingwood Abbott (Harvard graduate and independent scholar).
Other occasional participants include Francis Bowen (Harvard graduate and professor of philosophy), Nicholas St. John Green, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and G. Stanley Hall (Harvard graduate and psychologist).
The Metaphysical Club was a nine-year episode within a much broader pattern of informal philosophical discussion that occurred in the Boston area from the 1850s to the 1880s.
Chauncey Wright, renowned in town for his social demeanor and remarkable intelligence, had been a central participant in various philosophy clubs and study groups dating as early as his own college years at Harvard in the early 1850s.
Wright, Peirce, James, and Green were the most active members of the Metaphysical Club from its inception in 1871.
By mid-1875 the original Metaphysical Club was no longer functioning; James was the strongest connection between the first and second phases, helping Thomas Davidson to collect the members of the "Idealist" Metaphysical Club.
Link to the Hegel Club:
James also was a link to the next philosophical club, the "Hegel Club", which began in fall 1880 in connection with George Herbert Palmer's seminar on Hegel. By winter 1881 the Hegel Club had expanded to include several from the Metaphysical Club, including James, Cabot, Everett, Howison, Palmer, Abbott, Hall, and the newcomer William Torrey Harris who had taken up residence in Concord.
This Hegel Club was in many ways a continuation of the St. Louis Hegelian Society from the late 1850s and 1860s, as Harris, Howison, Davidson, and their Hegelian students had moved east.
The Concord Summer School of Philosophy (1879-1888), under the leadership of Amos Bronson Alcott and energized by the Hegelians, soon brought other young American scholars into the orbit of the Cambridge clubs, such as John Dewey.
The "Pragmatist" Metaphysical Club met on irregular occasions, probably fortnightly during the Club's most active period of fall 1871 to winter 1872, and they usually met in the home of Charles Pierce or William James in Cambridge.
This Club met for four years until mid-1875, when their diverse career demands, extended travels to Europe, and early deaths began to disperse them. The heart of the club was the close bonds between five very unusual thinkers on the American intellectual scene.
Chauncey Wright and Charles Sanders Peirce shared the same scientific interests and outlook, having adopted a positivistic and evolutionary stance, and their common love for philosophical discussion sparked the club's beginnings. Wright's old friend and lawyer Nicholas St. John Green was glad to be included, as was Peirce's good friend William James who had also gone down the road towards empiricism and evolutionism. William James brought along his best friend, the lawyer Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who like Green was mounting a resistance to the legal formalism dominating that era. Green brought fellow lawyer Joseph Bangs Warner, and the group also invited two philosophers who had graduated with them from Harvard, Francis Ellingwood Abbott and John Fiske, who were both interested in evolution and metaphysics.
Other occasional members were Henry Ware Putnam, Francis Greenwood Peabody, and William Pepperell Montague.
Activities of the "Pragmatist" Metaphysical Club were recorded only by Peirce, William James, and William's brother Henry James, who all describe intense and productive debates on many philosophical problems.
Both Peirce and James recalled that the name of the club was the "Metaphysical" Club. Peirce suggests that the name indicated their determination to discuss deep scientific and metaphysical issues despite that era's prevailing positivism and agnosticism. A successful "Metaphysical Club" in London was also not unknown to them. Peirce later stated that the club witnessed the birth of the philosophy of pragmatism in 1871, which he elaborated (without using the term 'pragmatism' itself) in published articles in the late 1870s. His own role as the "father of pragmatism" should not obscure, in Peirce's view, the importance of Nicholas Green. Green should be recognized as pragmatism's "grandfather" because, in Peirce's words, Green had "often urged the importance of applying Alexander Bain's definition of belief as 'that upon which a man is prepared to act,' from which 'pragmatism is scarce more than a corollary'." Chauncey Wright also deserves considerable credit, for as both Peirce and James recall, it was Wright who demanded a phenomenalist and fallibilist empiricism as a vital alternative to rationalistic speculation.
The several lawyers in this club took great interest in evolution, empiricism, and Bain's pragmatic definition of belief.
They were also acquainted with James Stephen's A General View of the Criminal Law in England, which also pragmatically declared that people believe because they must act. At the time of the Metaphysical Club, Green and Holmes were primarily concerned with special problems in determining criminal states of mind and general problems of defining the nature of law in a culturally evolutionary way.
Both Green and Holmes made important advances in the theory of negligence which relied on a pragmatic approach to belief and established a "reasonable person" standard. Holmes went on to explore pragmatic definitions of law that look forward to future judicial consequences rather than to past legislative decisions.
(Source: http://www.pragmatism.org/research/me...)
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While reading the book - try to take some notes about the ideas presented along the following lines:
1. Science
2. Religion
3. Philosophy
4. Psychology
5. Sociology
6. Evolution
7. Pragmatism
There are very good reasons why this book is not only called The Metaphysical Club but also after the colon: A Story of Ideas in America and the purpose of our discussion of this book is "to discuss those ideas".
Don't just read my posts - but jump right in - the more you post and the more you contribute - the more you will get out of the conversation and the read.
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Remember we are discussing major ideas and events right off the bat:
Ideas:
Metaphysics*
Pragmatism*
The Metaphysical Club*
Probability Theory* (Doctrine of Chances)
The Law of Errors*
Statistics*
Astronomy*
Method of Least Squares*
Nebular Hypothesis*
Permanence of Species*
Personal Equation*
Probable Error*
Celestial Mechanics*
Social Mechanics*
Nebular Hypothesis*
Outliers*
Criterion for the Rejection of Doubtful Observations* (Peirce's Criterion)
Metrology
Determinism
Social Physics
L'homme Moyen (the average man - the mean man)
Free Will*
General Aspect of Nature*
Abolition*
Economic Individualism*
Doctrine of Necessity*
Theory of Heat*
Kinetic Theory of Gases*
Science of Statistical Mechanics*
Law of Thermodynamics*
Theory of Natural Selection*
Events:
The American Civil War
People:
Charles Sanders Peirce*
Benjamin Peirce*
Pierre-Simon Laplace*
Abraham De Moivre
Carl Freidrich Gauss*
Arien Marie Legendre*
Louis XVIII*
Newton*
Napoleon*
Immanuel Kant*
George Cuvier*
Louis Agassiz*
Herbert Spencer*
Sylvia Ann Howland*
Nevil Maskelyne*
Nathanial Bowditch*
Thomas Higginson*
John Couch Adams
John Frederick William Herschel*
Urbain Jean-Joseph Le Verrier*
Johann Gottfried Galle*
Alexander Dallas Bache*
Adolphe Quetelet*
Joseph Fournier
Samuel Morton
Charles Louis*
Oliver Wendell Holmes*
John Hershel*
Henry Thomas Buckle
Fitzjames Stephen
Charles Darwin*
Alfred Russel Wallace*
Adam Smith
Thomas Huxley
Matthew Arnold*
Joseph Lovering*
James Clerk Maxwell*
Rudolph Clausius
Ludwig Boltzmann
William Thomson
Henry Adams
John Theodore Merz*
Groups
Huguenots
Academie Royale des Sciences
Royal Astronomical Society of London*
Government:
The Constitution
Bill of Rights
Fugitive Slave Act
Places
Harvard
Lawrence Scientific School
Thing
Bell-Shaped Curve
Outliers
Words
1. Opera Libretto:
A libretto is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term libretto is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet.
Libretto (pl. libretti), from Italian, is the diminutive of the word libro (book). A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. Some ballet historians also use the word libretto to refer to the 15–40 page books which were on sale to 19th century ballet audiences in Paris and contained a very detailed description of the ballet's story, scene by scene.
The relationship of the librettist (that is, the writer of a libretto) to the composer in the creation of a musical work has varied over the centuries, as have the sources and the writing techniques employed.
In the context of a modern English-language musical theater piece, the libretto is often referred to as the book of the work, though this usage typically excludes sung lyrics.
2. Statistik:
Statistik, their work was referred to, in English as "political arithmetic".
A statistician was someone who monitored the state of the state - population, mortality, marriage, disease, crime, climate, and so on.
The term "statistics" is etymologically linked to "state": statisticians were sometimes called "statists", and before the adoption of the German term Statistik.
3. Perturbation Theory:
Perturbation theory comprises mathematical methods that are used to find an approximate solution to a problem which cannot be solved exactly, by starting from the exact solution of a related problem. Perturbation theory is applicable if the problem at hand can be formulated by adding a "small" term to the mathematical description of the exactly solvable problem.
4. Individualism:
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that emphasizes "the moral worth of the individual".
Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance and advocate that interests of the individual should achieve precedence over the state or a social group, while opposing external interference upon one's own interests by society or institutions such as the government.
Individualism makes the individual its focus and so starts "with the fundamental premise that the human individual is of primary importance in the struggle for liberation."
Liberalism, existentialism and anarchism are examples of movements that take the human individual as a central unit of analysis.
Individualism thus involves "the right of the individual to freedom and self-realization".
It has also been used as a term denoting "The quality of being an individual; individuality"[3] related to possessing "An individual characteristic; a quirk."
Individualism is thus also associated with artistic and bohemian interests and lifestyles where there is a tendency towards self-creation and experimentation as opposed to tradition or popular mass opinions and behaviors as so also with humanist philosophical positions and ethics.
5. Laissez-Faire:
As a system of thought, laissez faire rests on the following axioms:
1. The individual is the basic unit in society.
2. The individual has a natural right to freedom.
3. The physical order of nature is a harmonious and self-regulating system. These axioms constitute the basic elements of laissez-faire thought, although another basic and often-disregarded element is that markets should be competitive, a rule that the early advocates of laissez-faire have always emphasized.
6. Cosmology:
(1)
a : a branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of the universe
b : a theory or doctrine describing the natural order of the universe
(2)
a : a branch of astronomy that deals with the origin, structure, and space-time relationships of the universe; also : a theory dealing with these matters
7. Semiotics:
a) Here is a link to Semiotics for Beginners on the internet - Enjoy
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents...
b) Semiotics, also called semiotic studies and including (in the Saussurean tradition) semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes (semiosis), indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication. Semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which, for its part, studies the structure and meaning of language more specifically. However, as different from linguistics, semiotics also studies non-linguistic sign systems. Semiotics is often divided into three branches:
Semantics: Relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their denotata, or meaning
Syntactics: Relations among signs in formal structures
Pragmatics: Relation between signs and sign-using agents
Semiotics is frequently seen as having important anthropological dimensions; for example, Umberto Eco proposes that every cultural phenomenon can be studied as communication.[1] However, some semioticians focus on the logical dimensions of the science. They examine areas belonging also to the natural sciences – such as how organisms make predictions about, and adapt to, their semiotic niche in the world (see semiosis). In general, semiotic theories take signs or sign systems as their object of study: the communication of information in living organisms is covered in biosemiotics (including zoosemiotics).
Syntactics is the branch of semiotics that deals with the formal properties of signs and symbols.[2] More precisely, syntactics deals with the "rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and sentences".[3] Charles Morris adds that semantics deals with the relation of signs to their designata and the objects which they may or do denote; and, pragmatics deals with the biotic aspects of semiosis, that is, with all the psychological, biological, and sociological phenomena which occur in the functioning of signs.
c) Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914), a noted logician who founded philosophical pragmatism, defined semiosis as an irreducibly triadic process wherein something, as an object, logically determines or influences something as a sign to determine or influence something as an interpretation or interpretant, itself a sign, thus leading to further interpretants.
Semiosis is logically structured to perpetuate itself. The object can be quality, fact, rule, or even fictional (Hamlet), and can be (1) immediate to the sign, the object as represented in the sign, or (2) dynamic, the object as it really is, on which the immediate object is founded. The interpretant can be (1) immediate to the sign, all that the sign immediately expresses, such as a word's usual meaning; or (2) dynamic, such as a state of agitation; or (3) final or normal, the ultimate ramifications of the sign about its object, to which inquiry taken far enough would be destined and with which any actual interpretant can at most coincide.
His semiotic covered not only artificial, linguistic, and symbolic signs, but also semblances such as kindred sensible qualities, and indices such as reactions. He came c. 1903 to classify any sign by three interdependent trichotomies, intersecting to form ten (rather than 27) classes of sign.
Signs also enter into various kinds of meaningful combinations; Peirce covered both semantic and syntactical issues in his speculative grammar. He regarded formal semiotic as logic per se and part of philosophy; as also encompassing study of arguments (hypothetical, deductive, and inductive) and inquiry's methods including pragmatism; and as allied to but distinct from logic's pure mathematics. For a summary of Peirce's contributions to semiotics, see Liszka (1996) or Atkin (2006).
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Chapter abstracts are short descriptions of events that occur in each chapter.
They highlight major plot events and detail the important relationships and characteristics of characters and objects.
The Chapter Abstracts that I will add can be used to review what you have read, and to prepare you for what you will read.
These highlights can be a reading guide or you can use them in your discussion to discuss any of these points. I add them so these bullet points can serve as a "refresher" or a stimulus for further discussion.
Here are a few:
New Abstracts:
* The law of errors was based on a combination of probability and statistics.
* Carl Friedrich Gauss created the method of least squares.
* Pierre Simon Laplace published the method and was responsible for the probability theory.
* Benjamin Pierce believed in the theory proposed by Laplace.
* Pierce published another paper on the use of outliers - Pierce's Criterion
* Adolph Quetlet and Henry Thomas Buckle pushed statistics into descriptions of societal factors.
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New Questions:
1. Discuss the theory of probability and its relationship to statistics. What was based on a combination of the theory of probability and statistics?
2. What did you find exciting about this chapter, what new idea or concept did you learn about for the first time in this chapter, and what were your favorite sections and why?
3. What did you like least about this chapter?
4. Why did "mathematics" scare a lot of people during this period in history? Why were they afraid of correlating numbers and statistics to determine probability and outcomes. Did this scare folks because of their religious beliefs and that they wanted to believe that things were not "determined"?
5. What did Quetlet use the method of least squares for when he was doing his own research? And why would he do that?
6. How much correlation do you think mathematical probability has to the actual number of events that occur in the world today? Do you believe that we can predict all sorts of human behavior based simply on the price of food and by the rate of wages?
7. What did you think of Buckle's hypothesis that human behavior, and thus human history, is determined by four conditions: climate, food, soil and what he called the "General Aspect of Nature"?
8. Buckle borrowed Quetelet's argument that it is society, not the individual, that is responsible for vice. "This is an inference resting on broad and tangible proofs accessible to all of the world - he said. What was the "hypothesis of free will"? Is Free Will an unscientific concept? Why or why not?
9. Quetelet believed that "People who murder-like people who marry and people who commit suicide- are only fulfilling a quota that has been preset by social conditions." What do you think of that statement and that belief?
10. What about the statement, "Man is born, grows up, and dies according to certain laws which have never been studied." What do you think about that statement?
11. Explain in your own words what you think the "Laws of Errors" are all about.
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1. "Paris is supposed to be a place where people fall in love. Adolphe Quetelet fell in love with a curve."
2. "The proposed observations should be rejected when the probability of the system of errors obtained by retaining them is less than that of the system of errors obtained by their rejection multiplied by the probability of making so many , and no more, abnormal observations." - Peirce's Criterion
3. "The consistency of that value, Laplace thought signified the operation of natural law. "All events, even those which, by their insignificance, seem not to follow the great laws of nature, follow them as necessarily as the revolutions of the sun.
4. "People marry and letters get misaddressed for apparently subjective and unreproducible reasons, but statistics reveals that the total number of marriages or of dead letters every year gravitates, as if by necessity, around a mean value."
5. "By uncoupling the idea of precision from the idea of a single absolute value, statistics and probability theory allowed scientists to achieve far greater degrees of precision than they had ever imagined possible. Statistics conquered uncertainly by embracing it."
6. "The genius of statistics, as Laplace defined it, was that it did not ignore errors; it quantified them."
7. "Laplace's point was that we can never know with absolute certainty: we can only know with greater or lesser degrees of probability."
8. "Statistics has already thrown more light on the study of human nature than all of the sciences put together."
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That is OK - we are all here to help.
Always take a look at the chapter overviews and summaries, and then pop over to post seven which identifies the key ideas, people, places, things, government entities and vocabulary which are part of this chapter - there were a vast number of people and ideas introduced. Pick one to discuss and explain your opinions, ideas, thoughts on any element of the chapter for starters.
Take a look at message 9 which lists a good number of questions which should stimulate discussion if you have read the chapter. Pick one and present what you think are the salient points that should be remembered that are part of the answer to the question itself.
If you think you have a better question, then pose it and tell us why you think this is a good question or an idea we should discuss about the chapter.
If you would like to talk about a different idea presented in this chapter, by all means do. You can talk about anything in chapter 8 or any of the chapters earlier in the book. You just cannot go ahead.
Then in message 10, I have posted some quotes from the chapter itself - take a look at them and is there one that you would like to discuss or express your point of view. By all means post. If you have another quote that you would like to discuss that comes from Chapter 8, by all means do a copy and paste and post your views and the quote on this thread.
Putting together all of the major ideas, abstracts, discussion questions, quotes and outline took a great deal of time for this chapter so please utilize the above and start posting and generating discussion posts. The more each of you posts the better the discussion will be - there are no right or wrong answers - just post and respond to each other.
I will post daily some helpful tips, links, explanations, etc. but of course I cannot cover every idea in the chapter - that is left up to all of you to generate and stimulate some of the discussion ideas and interaction.
So start posting - the chapter non spoiler thread is open.
Enjoy.
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A History of European Thought in the in the Nineteenth Century by John Theodore Merz
by John Theodore Merz (no photo)Synopsis:
John Theodore Merz (1840-1922) was an industrial chemist and philosopher who came to Britain from his native Germany in 1867.
His life-long work was dominated by the desire to contribute towards the unification of knowledge. Uniting the two cultures of science and the arts, Merz's "History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century" is an extended survey of the development of scientific (volumes 1 and 2) and philosophical (volumes 3 & 4) thought.
It is not a history of science, but a history of scientific thinking, not a history of philosophy, but a survey of the main philosophical ideas. It was perceived by his contemporaries as a continutation of Whewell's "History of Inductive Science" (1837).
As the only study which examines the whole range of continental 19th-century intellect it is an important and essential sourcebook for scholars. Divided into two sections, each containing extensive bibliographic footnotes and an index, it refers to the key works and theories of the major European scientists and philosophers. Volume 2 also contains one of the first attempts by a historian to include the subject of mathematical thought in a general history of intellectual progress.
Merz's work was originally published in four volumes between 1896 and 1914. Subsequent unaltered editions followed and it has remained a classic study of the history of European scientific and philosophical debate.
Book from the collection of Harvard University - FREE
http://archive.org/details/ahistoryeu...
More:
Other books of Merz available on line - FREE
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/...
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Harvard graduation photo of Henry Brooks Adams, author of 'The Education of Henry Adams'
Date 1858
Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918; normally called Henry Adams) was an American journalist, historian, academic and novelist. He was the grandson and great-grandson of John Quincy Adams and John Adams, respectively. He is best known for his autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams, and his History of the United States During the Administration of Thomas Jefferson. He was a member of the Adams political family.
More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Adams
Henry Adams, Globe Trotter
in Space and Tim - http://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/eas...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexper...
by
Henry Adams
by
Henry Adams
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More:
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, PRSE, (26 June 1824 – 17 December 1907) was a Belfast-born British mathematical physicist and engineer. At the University of Glasgow he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its modern form. He worked closely with mathematics professor Hugh Blackburn in his work. He also had a career as an electric telegraph engineer and inventor, which propelled him into the public eye and ensured his wealth, fame and honour. For his work on the transatlantic telegraph project he was knighted by Queen Victoria, becoming Sir William Thomson. He had extensive maritime interests and was most noted for his work on the mariner's compass, which had previously been limited in reliability.
Lord Kelvin is widely known for determining the correct value of absolute zero as approximately -273.15 Celsius. A lower limit to temperature was known prior to Lord Kelvin, as shown in "Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat", published by Sadi Carnot in French in 1824, the year of Lord Kelvin's birth. "Reflections" used -267 as the absolute zero temperature. Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honour.
On his ennoblement in 1892 in honour of his achievements in thermodynamics, and of his opposition to Irish Home Rule,[2][3][4] he adopted the title Baron Kelvin of Largs and is therefore often described as Lord Kelvin. He was the first UK scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords. The title refers to the River Kelvin, which flows close by his laboratory at the University of Glasgow. His home was the imposing red sandstone mansion Netherhall, in Largs on the Firth of Clyde. Despite offers of elevated posts from several world renowned universities Lord Kelvin refused to leave Glasgow, remaining Professor of Natural Philosophy for over 50 years, until his eventual retirement from that post. The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow has a permanent exhibition on the work of Lord Kelvin including many of his original papers, instruments and other artefacts such as his smoking pipe.
Always active in industrial research and development, he was recruited around 1899 by George Eastman to serve as vice-chairman of the board of the British company Kodak Limited, affiliated with Eastman Kodak.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_...
Scottish mathematician and physicist who contributed to many branches of physics. He was known for his self-confidence, and as an undergraduate at Cambridge he thought himself the sure "Senior Wrangler" (the name given to the student who scored highest on the Cambridge mathematical Tripos exam). After taking the exam he asked his servant, "Oh, just run down to the Senate House, will you, and see who is Second Wrangler." The servant returned and informed him, "You, sir!" (Campbell and Higgens, p. 98, 1984). Another example of his hubris is provided by his 1895 statement "heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible" (Australian Institute of Physics), followed by his 1896 statement, "I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning...I would not care to be a member of the Aeronautical Society." Kelvin is also known for an address to an assemblage of physicists at the British Association for the advancement of Science in 1900 in which he stated, "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement." A similar statement is attributed to the American physicist Albert Michelson.
Kelvin argued that the key issue in the interpretation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics was the explanation of irreversible processes. He noted that if entropy always increased, the universe would eventually reach a state of uniform temperature and maximum entropy from which it would not be possible to extract any work. He called this the Heat Death of the Universe. With Rankine he proposed a thermodynamical theory based on the primacy of the energy concept, on which he believed all physics should be based. He said the two laws of thermodynamics expressed the indestructibility and dissipation of energy. He also tried to demonstrate that the equipartition theorem was invalid.
Thomson also calculated the age of the earth from its cooling rate and concluded that it was too short to fit with Lyell's theory of gradual geological change or Charles Darwin's theory of the evolution of animals though natural selection. He used the field concept to explain electromagnetic interactions. He speculated that electromagnetic forces were propagated as linear and rotational strains in an elastic solid, producing "vortex atoms" which generated the field. He proposed that these atoms consisted of tiny knotted strings, and the type of knot determined the type of atom. This led Tait to study the properties of knots. Kelvin's theory said ether behaved like an elastic solid when light waves propagated through it. He equated ether with the cellular structure of minute gyrostats. With Tait, Kelvin published Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867), which was important for establishing energy within the structure of the theory of mechanics. (It was later republished under the title Principles of Mechanics and Dynamics by Dover Publications).
More:
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/B...
http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/education/t...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic...
Chapter 8 is my favorite chapter so far. I am a certified teacher in mathematics and physics. I find some of the details presented confusing; but thoroughly have enjoyed the historical background presented.
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Since my background is not in mathematics or physics or thermodynamics, and use statistics only in terms of my personal research - it would be terrific for you to tackle that for us and help us understand the gist of the points that the author Menand is making here before we move on - I can certainly see that all of this is going to come together soon but it would nice to hear from an expert like yourself.
And thank you for posting and I hope to read many more of your posts here.
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At this point we want to remember what Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr believed - "that certitude leads to violence and moral certitude always leads to violence.
He was talking about the Civil War and the carnage that he experienced because of moral certitude. So when we talk about the Civil War and about Oliver Wendell Holmes's view of war - because of what he went through - he would believe that all wars are not moral and all wars are caused by certitude that leads to violence.
Now this is the pragmatic view and not everyone is going to prescribe to that philosophy of course and some of you might cite what you believe are moral conflicts.
But based upon what we have learned thus far - was it certitude in one form or another that caused the faulty thinking and contention also within the scientific community. Did each one of these scientists believe that they were so right that it was impossible for them to see how wrong they really were.
Discuss certitude and how it leads to folly or not?
You can discuss this in relationship to the book itself and also extend it to present day current events if you are trying to make the philosophical point or not.
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Discussion Questions for Chapter Eight - think about some of these questions while you are reading:
New Questions:
1. Discuss the theory of probability and its relationship to statistics. What was based on a combination of the theory of probability and statistics?
2. What did you find exciting about this chapter, what new idea or concept did you learn about for the first time in this chapter, and what were your favorite sections and why?
3. What did you like least about this chapter?
4. Why did "mathematics" scare a lot of people during this period in history? Why were they afraid of correlating numbers and statistics to determine probability and outcomes. Did this scare folks because of their religious beliefs and that they wanted to believe that things were not "determined"?
5. What did Quetlet use the method of least squares for when he was doing his own research? And why would he do that?
6. How much correlation do you think mathematical probability has to the actual number of events that occur in the world today? Do you believe that we can predict all sorts of human behavior based simply on the price of food and by the rate of wages?
7. What did you think of Buckle's hypothesis that human behavior, and thus human history, is determined by four conditions: climate, food, soil and what he called the "General Aspect of Nature"?
8. Buckle borrowed Quetelet's argument that it is society, not the individual, that is responsible for vice. "This is an inference resting on broad and tangible proofs accessible to all of the world - he said. What was the "hypothesis of free will"? Is Free Will an unscientific concept? Why or why not?
9. Quetelet believed that "People who murder-like people who marry and people who commit suicide- are only fulfilling a quota that has been preset by social conditions." What do you think of that statement and that belief?
10. What about the statement, "Man is born, grows up, and dies according to certain laws which have never been studied." What do you think about that statement?
11. Explain in your own words what you think the "Laws of Errors" are all about.
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I don't have a degree in math . . . but I didn't think the theories discussed in this chapter were that difficult to understand. I did find the conclusions interesting . . .
What scandalized people about the Peirces' testimony in the Howland will case was their apparent reduction of a human activity -- signing one's name -- to a set of numbers. For in the 1860s such reductions had a particular philosophical implication. They were understood to point toward determinism. Law of Errors p.2
That one could deduce behavior by statistics . . .
Quetelet's two claims . . .
The first was that since (as he believed he had shown) there is a "law" governing the amount of crime in a society, moral responsibility for crime must lie with the society and not with the individual criminal. Law of Errors p.3
The second influential generalization Quetelet drew from his research was the concept of l'homme moyen -- the average man. Law of Errors p.3
That when things go wrong it is the fault of society . . .
Then we have Buckle who developed the concept that
human behavior, and thus human history, is determined by four conditions: climate, food, soil, and what he called the 'General Aspect of Nature' Law of Errors p.3
That environment is what influences the actions of man . . . and negates the concept of free will . . . and he believed that society cannot prosper, unless the affairs of life are watched over and protected at nearly every turn by the state and the church. Law of Errors p.3
This reminds me of Big Brother or a socialist or communist state.
There were so many theories being bandied about in this chapter . . . it was difficult to see where they were all leading . . but we finally come back to Charles Peirce again and his conclusion that
reality doesn't stand still long enough to be accurately mirrored. Peirce's conclusion was that knowledge must therefore be social.
Finally!! we have all of these threads leading to the formation of the Metaphysical Club . . .
I personally believe in the concept of individual responsibility . . . many circumstances may occur in one's life . . . but one always has the option of how one responds to those circumstances . . . free will.
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Do you think that folks who were religious did not feel comfortable with the fact that what they might do was predictable?
I know Tomerobber - what a relief (smile).
You are very wise with that last statement.
I'm no religious expert . . . but I believe the concept of Pre-ordination or God's Will would take precedence over any statistics decerned by humans.
Statistics and probability theory took the science world by storm. It is interesting to note the many different aspects of science and sociology that were being described by statistics. And it is interesting to see how these scientists are usually involved in several different topics, whereas in modern times scientists are specialists in more narrow fields it seems.I love the sentence (page 200), "Each mind reflects differently -- even the same mind reflects differently at different moments-- and in any case reality doesn't stand still long enough to be accurately mirrored." This leads nicely to tying Peirce and the others together with their contributions to American thought.
Hi Kathy,I liked that thought also . . .
I realize that we are reading about intellectuals, but it seems that it was "cool" at this time to like and get excited about science. I know too few people who get excited about science and mathematics. I guess I need to hang with a different crowd to get that fix.
It's funny . . . when I was in school years ago LOL I never really could find much use for math . . . I was more interested in arts and sciences. I only developed an interest after I became familiar with computers . . . finally found a use for all those formulas! If I had had access to computer technology when I was younger . . . I'm pretty sure I would have gone into computer science instead of nursing. I have taken some classes . . .
In reading the theories in this book . . sometimes makes me sit there shaking my head in disbelief . . . but each time society comes up with a "new" theory . . . if you trace history there are common threads that have been "discovered" before . . . and we just seem to be repeating ourselves.
I have already started the reading for next week . . . but so far I'm finding Chauncey Wright (who's ideas are discussed more in depth in the next part) to be my-kind-guy is this book . . . more to be discovered . . .
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Tomerobber wrote: "I have already started the reading for next week . . . but so far I'm finding Chauncey Wright (who's ideas are discussed more in depth in the next part) to be my-kind-guy is this book . . . more to..."Yes, in a way, so far none of the people we've read about seem very likable.
Mod
Bentley wrote: "Discussion QuestionAt this point we want to remember what Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr believed - "that certitude leads to violence and moral certitude always leads to violence.
He was talking abou..." This is, so far, my favorite quote from the book. Moral certitude always leads to violence. 911, Boston marathon. It's almost the definition of terrorist activity. It leads to an eye for an eye philosophy. I am with Mr. Holmes on this one. And I love the discussion of statistics -- and the theory of errors, the analogy of the target (Loc 3076) was especially helpful to help me understand. That if enough arrows are shot at a bulls eye, even if none of them hit it you can figure out the location of the bulls eye from the location of the misses. Like algebra you discover what you don't know from measuring what you know. Love it.
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Isn't that amazing that we and everything else in the universe has a degree of predictability. Sort of spooky.
You made some excellent points Sherry and thank you for pointing these out to the readers and glad you loved the chapter.
Kathy wrote: "It is interesting to note the many different aspects of science and sociology that were being described by statistics. And it is interesting to see how these scientists are usually involved in several different topics, whereas in modern times scientists are specialists in more narrow fields it seems...."I noticed that too, Kathy. My experience of statiticians, however, is that they do not fall inside the normal curve of scientists :) So it isn't surprising to me that they can also be philosophers, theologians, and physicists simultaneously.
I got my degree in Fine Arts, but in order to avoid taking a language (always a struggle for me to learn), I wound up with a minor in statistics. I don't remember much of it, but it made the chapter easier to consume. It also reminded me of how statistics can turn the world inside out so that you can look at it from a completely different point of view.
I think the trick is to remember that you are measuring the certainty (embracing the uncertainty) of your ability to measure... plus, the existence of outliers (which must be accounted for) sort of belies belief systems (certitudes) in general.
In the end, when I left my statistics behind me, I realized there is really only one verifiable statistic -- like flipping a coin, all of life's choices come down to a 50-50 deal. Either it is, or it isn't. It happens, or it doesn't. It's true, or it's not.
I really like Menand's line of logic in pulling together all these bits and pieces in order to introduce us to the subject of the book. I can absolutely imagine how he must have had to reverse engineer his original hypothesis for the book in order to produce a viable story. It must have been very exciting for him as he discovered the layers of connections underlying the consequences of the relationships between these few men. It certainly has been exciting for me to read about it.
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And I am glad to hear that you are liking the book and enjoyed this very dense chapter.
There are liars, dammed liars and statisticians. We have now spent 44.9 to 45.2% of the book text in setting the stage for the actual club. Some statisticians might calculate a lower number but I speak with certitude that my technique is correct.I thought it was ironic that Benjamin Peirce was in error on the way to handle outliers after his remark to his grad students (probably on a different subject) that there were only 3 other people in the world that would have understood his lecture.
When we were in Scotland this spring I was glad to note that there were statues up to noted scientists and authors as well as to soldiers. Don't recall one for Lord Kelvin though. He was wrong on the cooling of the Earth because science wasn't aware of radioactive decay and the heat it releases at that time.
Forget about mathematics scaring people in that time, Why does it scare people in this time?
Patricrk wrote: "There are liars, dammed liars and statisticians. We have now spent 44.9 to 45.2% of the book text in setting the stage for the actual club. Some statisticians might calculate a lower number but I...";o)
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The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Henry Adams: History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson (other topics)The Education of Henry Adams (other topics)
A History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century Volume 3; Scientific Thought, 2 V (other topics)
The Metaphysical Club : A Story of Ideas in America (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Henry Adams (other topics)John Theodore Merz (other topics)
Louis Menand (other topics)
For the week of August 12th - August 18th, we are reading Chapter Eight of The Metaphysical Club.
Our motto at The History Book Club is that it is never too late to begin a book. We are with you the entire way.
The eighth week's reading assignment is:
Week Eight - August 12th - August 18th
Part Three - Chapter Eight
The Law of Errors (177 - 200)
We will open up a thread for each week's reading. Please make sure to post in the particular thread dedicated to those specific chapters and page numbers to avoid spoilers. We will also open up supplemental threads as we did for other spotlighted books.
This book was kicked off on June 26th. We look forward to your participation. Amazon and Barnes and Noble and other noted on line booksellers do have copies of the book and shipment can be expedited. The book can also be obtained easily at your local library, or on your Kindle. Make sure to pre-order now if you haven't already. Please also patronage your local book stores.
This weekly thread will be opened up on August 12th or earlier
There is no rush and we are thrilled to have you join us. It is never too late to get started and/or to post.
Bentley will be leading this discussion. Assisting Moderator Kathy will be the back up.
Welcome,
~Bentley
TO ALWAYS SEE ALL WEEKS' THREADS SELECT VIEW ALL
REMEMBER NO SPOILERS ON THE WEEKLY NON SPOILER THREADS - ON EACH WEEKLY NON SPOILER THREAD - WE ONLY DISCUSS THE PAGES ASSIGNED OR THE PAGES WHICH WERE COVERED IN PREVIOUS WEEKS. IF YOU GO AHEAD OR WANT TO ENGAGE IN MORE EXPANSIVE DISCUSSION - POST THOSE COMMENTS IN ONE OF THE SPOILER THREADS. THESE CHAPTERS HAVE A LOT OF INFORMATION SO WHEN IN DOUBT CHECK WITH THE CHAPTER OVERVIEW AND SUMMARY TO RECALL WHETHER YOUR COMMENTS ARE ASSIGNMENT SPECIFIC. EXAMPLES OF SPOILER THREADS ARE THE GLOSSARY, THE BIBLIOGRAPHY, THE INTRODUCTION AND THE BOOK AS A WHOLE THREADS.
Notes:
It is always a tremendous help when you quote specifically from the book itself and reference the chapter and page numbers when responding. The text itself helps folks know what you are referencing and makes things clear.
Citations:
If an author or book is mentioned other than the book and author being discussed, citations must be included according to our guidelines. Also, when citing other sources, please provide credit where credit is due and/or the link. There is no need to re-cite the author and the book we are discussing however.
If you need help - here is a thread called the Mechanics of the Board which will show you how:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...
Glossary - SPOILER THREAD
Remember there is a glossary thread where ancillary information is placed by the moderator. This is also a thread where additional information can be placed by the group members regarding the subject matter being discussed.
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
Bibliography - SPOILER THREAD
There is a Bibliography where books cited in the text are posted with proper citations and reviews. We also post the books that the author used in his research or in his notes. Please also feel free to add to the Bibliography thread any related books, etc with proper citations. No self promotion, please. And please do not place long list of books on the discussion threads. Please add to the bibliography thread where we love to peruse all entries. Make sure you properly cite your additions to make it easier for all.
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
Book as a Whole and Final Thoughts - SPOILER THREAD
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
Table of Contents and Syllabus:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...