Karl Pearson's Biometric Laboratory and the Spread of Statistical Methods in Science

卡尔·皮尔逊的生物识别实验室和统计方法在科学中的传播

• 批准号: 9412396
• 负责人: Theodore Porter
• 金额: $ 8万
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fixed Amount Award
• 财政年份: 1994
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1994-07-15 至 1996-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9412396&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Karl; Pearson; Biometric; Laboratory; Spread

Karl Pearson was in many ways the founder of modern statistics as a set of methods applicable to quantitative data from almost any science. While there is good historical literature about Pearson's own development as a statistician and the relation of his work to his eugenic commitments, there is remarkably little about the spread of Pearsonian statistical methods to the sciences that adopted them. Dr. Porter is emphasizing the expansion of statistics through a study of Pearson personal contacts and correspondence. Pearson's biometric laboratory began taking in postgraduate students and other visitors. Some of the most important statisticians in several disciplines worked with him directly for extended periods. To see how this network spread from Pearson's lab to the various scientific disciplines, Dr. Porter is examining both the Pearson archive and the published record of those who introduced modern statistical methods to their disciplines. Dr. Porter is keenly alert to the scientific and institutional contexts within which such people worked. This study contributes not only to the history of statistics as such, but also to our understanding of the expectations, standards, and values that have made statistical rules of inference so central to the drive for objectivity in the modern social and natural sciences.

卡尔·皮尔逊在许多方面都是现代统计学的创始人，现代统计学是一套适用于几乎所有科学的定量数据的方法。尽管关于皮尔逊作为统计学家的自身发展，以及他的工作与他的优生承诺之间的关系，有很好的历史文献，但关于皮尔逊统计方法在采用这些方法的科学中的传播，显然很少。波特博士强调通过研究皮尔逊的个人联系和通信来扩大统计范围。皮尔逊的生物识别实验室开始接纳研究生和其他参观者。几个学科中一些最重要的统计学家直接与他合作了很长一段时间。为了了解这个网络是如何从皮尔逊的实验室扩展到各个科学学科的，波特博士正在研究皮尔逊的档案和那些将现代统计学方法引入学科的人的公开记录。波特博士对这些人工作时所处的科学和制度背景保持着敏锐的警惕。这项研究不仅有助于统计学的历史本身，而且有助于我们理解期望、标准和价值观，这些期望、标准和价值观使统计推理规则成为推动现代社会科学和自然科学中客观性的核心。