Robitaille, Christian (2021) Halbwachs on Quetelet and the Use of Statistics in Sociology. In: The Anthem Companion to Maurice Halbwachs. Anthem Companions to Sociology . Anthem Press, London, pp. 109-128. ISBN 9781785276804
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Maurice Halbwachs’s career is characterized by a special concern for how statistics can be useful to sociological analyses. He even published a book entirely dedicated to the study of the work of mathematician Adolphe Quetelet and, in particular, of what he called “moral statistics.” The importance of Quetelet’s work in the development of early sociology, more specifically through Émile Durkheim and the Durkheimians, who considered it as useful but often incomplete and incorrect, is without any doubt what incited Halbwachs to comment on its scope and limits. It is indeed in continuity to Durkheim’s own criticisms of Quetelet that Halbwachs formulated his own. The following chapter will present the main elements of Halbwachs’s analysis of Quetelet’s moral statistics. It will also discuss his subsequent work dealing with statistics, most notably his articles on statistical experimentation and probabilities and on the use of statistics in sociology. As Halbwachs was highly critical of Quetelet’s interpretation of statistical means in the social sciences, this chapter will insist on the specific differences in their respective methodological frameworks for the study of the social world. It will also present Halbwachs’s concerns about the proper uses of statistics in social analyses.
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| Faculty / Department: | Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences |
| Depositing User: | Christian Robitaille |
| Date Deposited: | 01 Nov 2022 10:05 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Nov 2022 10:05 |
| URI: | https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/3660 |
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