Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Around the same time, the birth of statistics required a
change in mentality in order to analyze social components
(such as criminality or epidemics) as a result of purely
human factors, as opposed to divine or metaphysical
ones [HEA 02]. The use of statistics illustrates the thesis of
Michel Foucault on the “birth of Man” in sciences,
becoming both “what must be thought and what is to be
known” [FOU 66, p.356]. Man becomes the basis of this new
episteme
:
Man was becoming that through which all
knowledge could be formed in its immediate
obviousness and not problematized. He was
becoming,
a fortiori
, what authorizes questioning
all knowledge detained by Man. [FOU 66, p.356]
Through
statistics,
the
state
of
societies
could
be
explained
directly
from
the
humans
that
made
them
up,
without
resorting
to
external
or
supernatural
factors.
The
use
of
maps
by
engineers
and
doctors
illustrates
the
properties
of
this
object
as
intellectual
technology.
1.2.3.
Maps and engineers
The development of railways, as a consequence of the
industrial revolution in France in the 19th Century, was a
thriving field for the use of thematic maps. Therefore, maps
became the “new art of the engineer” [PAL 96, p.101]. Not
only were maps used to adjust the pattern of the lines to the
topology of the space crossed, but engineers added
new elements at the middle of the 19th Century, such as
demographic, economics or logistics data. Thenceforth,
the population became a significant variable in the
structuring of railways, with the notion of “population
served” [PAL 96, p.102].
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