The Problem with Numbers: The Use of Empirical-Statistical Knowledge in Classical Social Theory
With reference to specific examples from canonical and non-canonical sociological writers from the 19th and early 20th century, and taking Georg Simmel’s insight into the quantitative determination of social groups as our theoretical frame and thematic point of departure, this essay considers the diversity of knowledge formats which characterize some of the founding texts of sociology. In particular, we focus on the use of statistical tables, surveys, and other ways of generating and displaying empirical knowledge in the work of classical social theorists such as Durkheim and Tarde, Marx and Engels, Max and Alfred Weber, along with the figures they drew upon or influenced, including Quetelet, Kay-Shuttleworth, and Du Bois. We conclude by considering how an examination of empirical and statistical methods in classical sociology helps us to see that the conflict between qualitative and quantitative approaches which divides sociology today is largely an effect of the subsequent development of the disciplinary division of labour and the professional specialization of knowledge, a problem which Simmel’s work helps us to expose and address.