Contabilidad y estadística alrededor del 1800

Abstract

The statistical procedures that emerged in the context of bookkeeping and State administration expanded over other fields of data management, shaping what we call the burocratization of knowledge, which will impact much more on the sciences in general than philosophy of knowledge. This means firstly the reorganization of the humanities in terms of social statistics and social physics (Quételet), and in a second step the aplication of statistics in the realm of nature. Thus, Darwin’s observation of large series of individuals and big numbers shows that at the beginning of evolution we also can find bookkeeping and statistics, which changed the shape of nature in an essential way.