A History of the Modern Fact - Problems of Knowledge in the Sciences of Wealth and Society (Hardcover, 2nd ed.)

How did the fact become modernity's most favored unit of knowledge? How did description come to seem separable from theory in the precursors of economics and the social sciences?
Mary Poovey explores these questions in "A History of the Modern Fact," ranging across an astonishing array of texts and ideas from the publication of the first British manual on double-entry bookkeeping in 1588 to the institutionalization of statistics in the 1830s. She shows how the production of systematic knowledge from descriptions of observed particulars influenced government, how numerical representation became the privileged vehicle for generating useful facts, and how belief--whether figured as credit, credibility, or credulity--remained essential to the production of knowledge.
Illuminating the epistemological conditions that have made modern social and economic knowledge possible, "A History of the Modern Fact" provides important contributions to the history of political thought, economics, science, and philosophy, as well as to literary and cultural criticism.

General

Imprint:	University of Chicago Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	November 1998
First published:	December 1998
Authors:	Mary Poovey
Dimensions:	233 x 158 x 32mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	448
Edition:	2nd ed.
ISBN-13:	978-0-226-67525-1
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > World history > General Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Economic history Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Epistemology, theory of knowledge Books > History > History of specific subjects > Economic history Books > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > History > World history > General Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Epistemology, theory of knowledge
LSN:	0-226-67525-4
Barcode:	9780226675251

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