In hmolscience, Theodore Porter (1953-) is an American social science historian noted for a number of works on a historical critique of aspects of social physics (James Maxwell) and human mathematics (Pierre Laplace and Adolphe Quetelet), or what might be better called social mathematics. [1]
Overview
In 1981, Porter, in his “A Statistical Survey of Gases: Maxwell’s Social Physics”, a public lecture, turned essay, given at University of Bielefeld, West Germany, discussed the influence of Adolphe Quetelet’s social physics in the gas theory physics of James Maxwell. [5]
In 1986, Porter, in his The Rise of Statistical Thinking, his first book, outlined the development of statistical ideas and methods in the social science, biological evolution, and thermodynamics. [3]'
In 2005, Porter, in his Karl Pearson: the Scientific Life in a Statistical Age, discussed some of the reactions to the Christian apologetic stylized paradoxical philosophy of Peter Tait and Balfour Stewart. [4]
Porter’s work is mentioned by those including American humanities thermodynamics historian Greg Myers, in his 1985 article “Nineteenth-Century Popularizations of Thermodynamics and the Rhetoric of Social Prophecy”, and physical economics historian Philip Mirowski, in his 1989 More Heat that Light. [2]
Education
Porter completed his AB in history at Stanford University in 1976 and PhD in history at Princeton University in 1981. Porter currently is a professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles.
References
1. (a) Porter, Theodore. (1981). “The Mathematics of Society: Variation and Error in Quetelet’s Statistics” (abs), British Journal for the History of Science, 18: 51-69.
(b) Porter, Theodore M. (1981). “A Statistical Survey of Gasses: Maxwell’s Social Physics” (abs), Historical Studies of the Physical Sciences, 12: 77-114.
2. (a) Myers, Greg. (1985). “Nineteenth-Century Popularizations of Thermodynamics and the Rhetoric of Social Prophecy.” Victorian Studies, 29: 35-66.
(b) Mirowski, Philip. (1989). More Heat than Light: Economics as Social Physics, Physics as Nature’s Economics (pg. 437). Cambridge University Press.
3. Porter, Theodore M. (1986). The Rise of Statistical Thinking: 1820-1900 (thermodynamics, 19+ pgs). Princeton University Press.
4. Porter, Theodore M. (2005). Karl Pearson: the Scientific Life in a Statistical Age (pgs. 38-39). Princeton University Press.
5. Porter, Theodore M. (1981). “A Statistical Survey of Gases: Maxwell’s Social Physics” (abs), public lecture at University of Bielefeld, West Germany; in Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, 12:77-116.
External links
● Theodore M. Porter – Wikipedia.
● Theodore M. Porter (faculty) – Department of the History, UCLA.
● Porter, Theodore M. (1953-) – WorldCat Identities.
