シモン?フィセリングの統計学: 19世紀中葉オランダでの大学派統計学の展開

摘要

Netherlands had a long history of Political Arithmetic, but any university did not admit Political Arithmetic. At the beginning of 19th century, a lecture of statistics started in the faculty of law, Leiden University, by Kluit. He owed a great deal to the Gottingen school of German statistics, and did not distinguish statistics from political economy. In 1850, Vissering succeeded the professor of statistics of Leiden University. He thought that the object of statistics was to realize actual state of society, and the material to be gathered should include non-numerical data. So he could not give any numerical method to utilize statistics. Though he regarded statistics as an auxiliary science of political economy, his statistics in the early stage was within the frame of Gottingen school. In the 1870s, though the object and materials of his statistics was the same as those of early stage, he introduced numerical method e.g. arithmetic mean, and new subjects of statistics, e.g. tracing from effect to causes of change in composition of population, analyzing source and distribution of wealth of nation. We can say that his statistics is going out from the influence of Goettingen school. At the beginning of his lecture, inl877, he said "Questions are arising as to giving lecture of statistics to student of faculty of law. It should be given in other faculties" This speech was sometimes taken that he was going to consider statistics as a general methodology. But his final object of scientific research was to analyze social system and find out ruling laws which were useful to human life mentally and physically. Therefore his statistics was still regarded as auxiliary to political economy, politics, hygiene, medical science, social ethics etc.%19世紀初頭クルイトらによりゲッチンゲン学派国状学がライデン大に導入され，大学派統計学が形成された。それは経済政策重視の国状学で，クルイトは統計学と経済学を同一視していた。1850年にライデン大教授に就任したフィセリングの統計学は，独立の科学であって経済学の補助科学とされたが，60年代迄の前期は基本的に国状学の枠内にあった。70年代の後期でも，統計学の課題を国土，国民，国富，国家政治とし，そのための資料の収集?整理を重視する点で国状学から抜け出ていないが，具体的課題として人口変動や国富の源泉?分配等を取り上げ，また平均等の数量的方法を扱い始めた点で，社会経済の統計学としての前進が見られる。そして退任直前，彼は統計学が大学法学部で講義される事に疑問を呈し広く哲学部や文学部等でも講義さるべきだと述べた。これを大学派統計学の解体と統計学の一般的方法論化の前兆とする見方があるが，フィセリングは最後まで，統計学的研究を自由意思を持つ人間の社会の因果法則的把握の前段階に位置づけていた。