The History of Statistics

Stephen Stigler

To appreciate the deep conceptual barriers that had to be overcome in the course of developing and accepting modern statistical methods, we may ask why available methods were seemingly ignored. Actually they were not totally ignored. In some cases they were actively and derisively attacked and in others thoughtfully discussed and dismissed as inappropriate. … Poinsot considered … “This singular idea of a calculus applicable to things where the ignorance and passion of men are intermingled in an imperfect light is dangerously illusory…” (p. 194)

If Fechner’s psychophysics could be said to have an inverse square law, it was the logarithmic law relating sensation and stimulus (Reiz):

This empirical law was developed by Fechner, and he christened it Weber’s law after E. H. Weber, who had an earlier developed a more limited but related hypothesis. Today this law is frequently referred to as the Weber-Fechner law, although such emphasis on Weber’s influence may be misleading because it ignores the fact that Fechner’s work was in some respect more closely related to Ohm’s early investigations of current. Indeed, Ohm’s first paper of 1825 had developed essentially the same empirical formula V = mlog (1+x) for the relation between the loss of force of current V and length of wire x. (p. 243)

Comment: Psychology and physics are closely related. Fechner is a professor in physics.