The Bell Curve Takes Shape

2019 ◽  
pp. 67-82
Author(s):  
Steven J. Osterlind
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Probability Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
Bell Curve ◽  
New Ideas

This chapter tells how quantification as an idea in spirit is moving across the Atlantic to the new country of the United States, and its relevance to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Probability theory begins to take off with Abraham de Moivre as he investigates distributions for numbers. He devises a histogram and begins a study of “errors” in a distribution in his Doctrine of Chances. Three terms are explained: “probability,” “odds,” and “likelihood.” What made the advances in mathematics, statistics, and especially probability theory so prominent was both the sheer volume of new ideas and the absolutely torrential pace at which these developments came.

scholarly journals Race and Politics in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-179
Author(s):  
Howard A. Palley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Black Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
Pursuit Of Happiness ◽  
George Washington ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
Chattel Slavery ◽  
Race And Politics ◽  
Inalienable Rights

Abstract The Declaration of Independence asserts that “All men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Nevertheless, the United States, at its foundation has been faced with the contradiction of initially supporting chattel slavery --- a form of slavery that treated black slaves from Africa purely as a commercial commodity. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom had some discomfort with slavery, were slaveholders who both utilized slaves as a commodity. Article 1 of our Constitution initially treated black slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of apportioning representation in order to increase Southern representation in Congress. So initially the Constitution’s commitment to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” did not include the enslaved black population. This essay contends that the residue of this initial dilemma still affects our politics --- in a significant manner.

Statistical Inference in Economics in the 1920s and 1930s

2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (6) ◽  
pp. 53-80
Author(s):  
Jeff Biddle
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Probability Theory ◽  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Statistical Inference ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Agricultural Products ◽  
Department Of Agriculture ◽  
The Us

Statistical inference is the process of drawing conclusions from samples of statistical data about things not fully described or recorded in those samples. During the 1920s, economists in the United States articulated a general approach to statistical inference that downplayed the value of the inferential measures derived from probability theory that later came to be central to the idea of statistical inference in economics. This approach is illustrated by the practices of economists of the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the US Department of Agriculture, who regularly analyzed statistical samples to forecast supplies of various agricultural products. Forecasting represents an interesting case for studying the development of inferential methods, as analysts receive regular feedback on the effectiveness of their inferences when forecasts are compared with actual events.

Awash in the Storm of National Revolution

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Motoe Sasaki
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gender Differences ◽  
The United States ◽  
Women Missionaries ◽  
New Developments ◽  
New Women ◽  
New Ideas

This chapter explores the aftermath of the collapse of the Wilsonian moment and its uneven and gendered effects on American New Women missionaries' enterprises in the Nationalist Revolution period (1924–27). It was at this time that the missionaries came to feel the power of the national revolution movement and found their projects were being reframed within new ideas and articulated in a new vocabulary that had become current in China. In taking such changes into account, they had to interpret and respond to new developments and ultimately reconsider their own perceptions of the United States and the very nature of their existence in China. Local Chinese resistance to their educational projects and institutions directed toward American New Women missionaries also brought into play gender differences and issues among the Chinese themselves and consequently made the difficulties facing the missionaries all the more complex and entrenched.

Ideas and Aspirations

2021 ◽  
pp. 221-239
Author(s):  
Oscar Calvo-Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Innovation ◽  
The State ◽  
Policy Entrepreneurs ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Practical Agenda

This chapter explores how, behind the change in economic policymaking, lies a change in the ideas of the elite. And behind the change in ideas was a relentless scanning of experience outside Spain, especially in Europe. The chapter documents how the technocrats that held increasing power in 1960s Spain consistently sought out new ideas about policymaking from Europe and the United States. They were deliberate policy entrepreneurs. Like their Western European peers, the technocrats considered a responsibility of the state to seek to advance progress for a wide spectrum of society. To pursue this objective, they considered it critical to increase efficiency and put great faith in technological progress. The chapter concludes that what truly stands out of the technocrats is that they were able to implement their practical agenda over a sustained period. There had been previous technocratic efforts to emulate European practices, sometimes from reformers that reached even higher levels of government. A long-term horizon allowed policies to evolve without unnecessary volatility, striking a balance between policy innovation and policy continuity.

Declaration of Independence of the United States

2019 ◽  
pp. 107-109
Author(s):  
Terence Ball ◽  
Richard Dagger ◽  
Daniel I. O’Neill
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Declaration Of Independence

Preemption of State Law: A Recommended Analysis

1989 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 832-839
Author(s):  
Harold G. Maier
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
State Law ◽  
National Authority ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
The People ◽  
Independent States ◽  
Governmental Power ◽  
Political Units

The fundamental principles that guide determinations about the appropriate relationship between state and national authority in matters affecting the foreign affairs of the United States began to evolve even before the ratification of the Constitution in 1789. The centralization of governmental power in this field is reflected in microcosm in the three great state papers of the United States. The nation began in 1776 as “United Colonies” that were “Free and Independent States” under the Declaration of Independence; developed into a “firm league of friendship” under the Articles of Confederation in 1781; and became a “more perfect union” created by the people, not by its constituent political units, under the Constitution in 1789.

The Failure of Spanish Florida

1960 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles W. Arnade
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Spanish Florida ◽  
New Ideas

Hispanic Florida was characterized by one truth: it was a failure, from whatever angle you look at its history. Spain's efforts in Florida were unsuccessful. She pursued a policy of bankruptcy with regard to that land. In 1763 she readily turned Florida over to the English to get back Havana. Today's Cuban capital was worth the whole of Florida. When she came back in 1783 new ideas could not stem the tide of failure of Spain's first period and a half century later she again gave up Florida, this time to the United States.

Schoenberg in the United States

Tempo ◽  
1972 ◽  
pp. 8-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Sessions
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
New Ideas

In any survey of Schoenberg's work one fact must be emphasized above all: that no younger composer writes quite the same music as he would have written, had Schoenberg's music not existed. The influence of an artist is not, even during his lifetime, confined to his disciples or even to those who have felt the direct impact of his work. It is filtered through to the humblest participant, first in the work of other original artists who have absorbed and re-interpreted it for their own purposes; then through the work of hundreds of lesser individuals, who unconsciously reflect the new tendencies even when they are opposed to them. For genuinely new ideas determine the battle-grounds on which their opponents are forced to attack. In the very process of combat the latter undergo decisive experiences which help to carry the new ideas forward.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document