Since the 18th century, one phenomenon, the proportion of the sexes at birth among human beings, has contributed to various developments such as the calculus of probabilities, administrative statistics, the moral and social sciences, the statistics of variability, post-Darwinian biology and Durkheimian sociology. This fact is brought to the critical attention of readers who rarely work together -- mathematicians, biologists, historians, social scientists and historians of the sciences -- along a three centuries European journey, meeting Sussmilch, Condorcet, Laplace, Fourier, Girou de...
Since the 18th century, one phenomenon, the proportion of the sexes at birth among human beings, has contributed to various developments such as th...
Hierarchy is a form of organisation of complex systems that rely on or produce a strong differentiation in capacity (power and size) between the parts of the system. It is frequently observed within the natural living world as well as in social institutions. According to the authors, hierarchy results from random processes, follows an intentional design, or is the result of the organisation which ensures an optimal circulation of energy for information.
This book reviews ancient and modern representations and explanations of hierarchies, and compares their relevance in a variety of...
Hierarchy is a form of organisation of complex systems that rely on or produce a strong differentiation in capacity (power and size) between the pa...
Insights developed in the past two decades by philosophers of the social sciences can serve to enrich the challenging intellectual tasks of conceptualizing, investigating, and representing the human past. Likewise, intimate engagement with the writings of historians can deepen philosophers' understanding of the task of knowing the past. This volume brings these perspectives together and considers fundamental questions, such as: What is historical causation? What is a large historical structure? How can we best conceptualize "mentalities" and "identities"? What is involved in understanding the...
Insights developed in the past two decades by philosophers of the social sciences can serve to enrich the challenging intellectual tasks of conceptual...
This book offers an alternative view to current postmodern approaches to composition. It takes a critical realist stance to arrive at the "essence" of written communication with the aim of informing a practical application: a computerised writing tutor. Following Robert Franck's seminal work on modelling, a theoretical model of writing was first formulated, consisting of an architecture of functions which constitute the prerequisites for effective communication. Next, an applied model - a composing algorithm with an input option - was developed, showing composing to be a systemic social...
This book offers an alternative view to current postmodern approaches to composition. It takes a critical realist stance to arrive at the "essence"...
3 the observation focus on aggregate or individual behaviours? Will the meth ods used to identify the relationships between the values measured be the same or totally different depending on the level of observation? Can several aggregation levels be used simultaneously? and so on. The social scientist will also need to address the issue of time: Will it be historical time, in which the events studied unfold, or, on the contrary, the time lived by the individual who experiences the events? Will the observation point be a precise moment of that "lived" time, in order to explain the behaviours...
3 the observation focus on aggregate or individual behaviours? Will the meth ods used to identify the relationships between the values measured be the...
Since the 18th century, one phenomenon, the proportion of the sexes at birth among human beings, has contributed to various developments such as the calculus of probabilities, administrative statistics, the moral and social sciences, the statistics of variability, post-Darwinian biology and Durkheimian sociology. This fact is brought to the critical attention of readers who rarely work together -- mathematicians, biologists, historians, social scientists and historians of the sciences -- along a three centuries European journey, meeting Sussmilch, Condorcet, Laplace, Fourier, Girou de...
Since the 18th century, one phenomenon, the proportion of the sexes at birth among human beings, has contributed to various developments such as th...
