The clinic’s small numbers

This article focuses on the conditions for integrating quantitative reasoning into clinical research, based on French phthisiology in the 1940s and 1950s. It introduces the concept of small numbers to explain the value of quantification operations that are not backed by statistical epistemology, but...

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Main Author: Kylian Godde
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Société d'Anthropologie des Connaissances 2024-12-01
Series:Revue d'anthropologie des connaissances
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/rac/36585
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author Kylian Godde
author_facet Kylian Godde
author_sort Kylian Godde
collection DOAJ
description This article focuses on the conditions for integrating quantitative reasoning into clinical research, based on French phthisiology in the 1940s and 1950s. It introduces the concept of small numbers to explain the value of quantification operations that are not backed by statistical epistemology, but without referring them to proto-statistics that are flawed or poorly constructed. Drawing on the methods of the socio-history of quantification, the article highlights three modes of existence of numbers in the construction of knowledge in phthisiology: the measurement of biological processes, the arrangement in series of cases and the creation of equivalence classes. Their analysis makes it possible to characterize the way in which phthisiologists quantify as clinicians, and thus to equip medical judgment.
format Article
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issn 1760-5393
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publisher Société d'Anthropologie des Connaissances
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series Revue d'anthropologie des connaissances
spelling doaj-art-e54e7fe808cb41ad8758c83bb209721e2025-08-20T02:12:41ZfraSociété d'Anthropologie des ConnaissancesRevue d'anthropologie des connaissances1760-53932024-12-0118410.4000/12swrThe clinic’s small numbersKylian GoddeThis article focuses on the conditions for integrating quantitative reasoning into clinical research, based on French phthisiology in the 1940s and 1950s. It introduces the concept of small numbers to explain the value of quantification operations that are not backed by statistical epistemology, but without referring them to proto-statistics that are flawed or poorly constructed. Drawing on the methods of the socio-history of quantification, the article highlights three modes of existence of numbers in the construction of knowledge in phthisiology: the measurement of biological processes, the arrangement in series of cases and the creation of equivalence classes. Their analysis makes it possible to characterize the way in which phthisiologists quantify as clinicians, and thus to equip medical judgment.https://journals.openedition.org/rac/36585quantificationclassmetrologymedical statisticsobjectivityphthisiology
spellingShingle Kylian Godde
The clinic’s small numbers
Revue d'anthropologie des connaissances
quantification
class
metrology
medical statistics
objectivity
phthisiology
title The clinic’s small numbers
title_full The clinic’s small numbers
title_fullStr The clinic’s small numbers
title_full_unstemmed The clinic’s small numbers
title_short The clinic’s small numbers
title_sort clinic s small numbers
topic quantification
class
metrology
medical statistics
objectivity
phthisiology
url https://journals.openedition.org/rac/36585
work_keys_str_mv AT kyliangodde theclinicssmallnumbers
AT kyliangodde clinicssmallnumbers