Data spaces as utopic spaces : C. Lévi-Strauss, L Guttmann and the Search for the Perfect Scale
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2012-06-07
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper discusses the idea of a "mathematics of man" Lévi-Strauss developed in a paper he wrote for Unesco in the fifties of the last century. Lévi-Strauss sees the social sciences reaching the status of a pure science soon. The reason for his hope was the new scaling techniques the Israeli statistician Louis Guttman was about to realize on the base of opinion surveys. Lévi-Strauss explores this search for a "perfect scale" to its endpoint: once developed, each spoken statement in a survey can be regarded as
an expression of a mathematical scale "behind" the speaking subjects. Using the
means of this technique it would be possible to identify the invisible mathematical
order of society that exists not only in primitive societies (as Lévi-Strauss has alreadyshown in his Mythologiques), but also in the unstable heart of western societies:public opinion. This idea of a "perfect scale" and a mathematics of society is regarded as a kind of a climax in the history of the empirical social sciences. The interesting point is what the articulation of such an idea can lead to: the realization of the idea, the abandonment of the project altogether, or some kind of muddling through: a "de-epistemologization". Said with other words, the evolution of a science may not only have one direction.
an expression of a mathematical scale "behind" the speaking subjects. Using the
means of this technique it would be possible to identify the invisible mathematical
order of society that exists not only in primitive societies (as Lévi-Strauss has alreadyshown in his Mythologiques), but also in the unstable heart of western societies:public opinion. This idea of a "perfect scale" and a mathematics of society is regarded as a kind of a climax in the history of the empirical social sciences. The interesting point is what the articulation of such an idea can lead to: the realization of the idea, the abandonment of the project altogether, or some kind of muddling through: a "de-epistemologization". Said with other words, the evolution of a science may not only have one direction.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Book title
Thema: The Measurement of Values
Publisher
MPIWG
Publisher place
Berlin
Start page
25
Event Title
The Measurement of Values
Event Location
ax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin
Event Date
07.-09.06.2012
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
217181