Jonathan - Ronald - discussion (fwd)

[Gretchen Whitney]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 20:08:27 +0100
From: Dr. Manfred Bonitz <M.Bonitz at fz-rossendorf.de>
Subject: Jonathan - Ronald - discussion

Dear Jonathan, Ronald, and SIGMETRICS,

thank you for your illuminating discussion.
There is a similar story sitting in the back of my mind showing that
sometimes well-educated people are using metaphorically their mathematical
knowledge in order to support their concepts of understanding social
processes and systems. They do not claim to have found mathematical laws or
theories of these processes.
Friedrich Engels published in 1844 a paper entitled "Umrisse zu einer Kritik
der Nationaloekonomie" (in: Deutsch-franzoesische Jahrbuecher. Eds. A. Ruge
and K. Marx. Reprinted by Reclam, Leipzig, 1973, pp. 180-214).
Here you find (on page 210) Engels in the controversy with Malthus who
favoured an over-population concept. Engels: "... science is progressing in
proportion to the mass of knowledge handed over by the preceding generation
... and what is impossible to science?" (my translation.M.B.)
Actually from this follows the "exponential law of science". I elaborated the
Engels story in my book "Scientific Research and Scientific Information", (in
German), Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1979, pp. 35 - 38.)
But Engels himself never claimed to have discovered the "exponential law of
science".
Derek de Solla Price is standing on the shoulders of giants, too.



Manfred Bonitz
Dr. rer. nat. habil.
Halbkreisstrasse 17
01187 Dresden / Germany
Phone: #49 351 4010760
Email: bonitz at fz-rossendorf.de

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