Stigler's law of eponymy
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Stigler's law of eponymy is a process proposed by University of Chicago statistics professor Stephen Stigler in his 1980 publication "Stigler’s law of eponymy" [1]. In its simplest and strongest form it says: "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer."
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[edit] Derivation
| “ | Stigler’s Law was discovered many times before Stigler named it.[2] | ” |
Historical acclaim and reputation tend to be allocated to people unevenly. Scientific observations and results are often associated with people who have high visibility and social status, and are named long after their discovery. Eponymy is a striking example of this phenomenon. Particularly important scientific observations are often associated with a person, as in the case of Gaussian distribution, Halley's comet, and Planck's constant.
Historians of science, however, have noted that often the person who is associated with the particular observation, theory, or result was not its original inventor. Based on his studies on the history of statistics, Stephen Stigler therefore proposed his own "Stigler's Law of Eponymy." Stigler attributes the discovery of Stigler's Law to Robert K. Merton (which makes the law self-referencing).
[edit] Similar concepts
Stigler's law is an example of the idea of multiple discovery, which stands in contrast with the heroic theory of invention and scientific development.
Stephen Stigler's father, the economist George Stigler, also examined the process of discovery in economics. He said that "If an earlier, valid statement of a theory falls on deaf ears, and a later restatement is accepted by the science, this is surely proof that the science accepts ideas only when they fit into the then-current state of the science". He gave several examples in which the original discoverer was not recognized as such.[3]
The Matthew Effect was coined by Robert K. Merton to describe how eminent scientists get more credit than a comparatively unknown researcher, even if their work is similar, so that credit will usually be given to researchers who are already famous.
"Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it" is an adage attributed to Alfred North Whitehead.[4]
[edit] See also
- List of examples of Stigler's law
- Eponym
- List of misnamed theorems
- List of persons considered father or mother of a scientific field
- Obliteration by incorporation
- Scientific priority
- Standing on the shoulders of giants
- Theories and sociology of the history of science
[edit] References
- ^ (Gieryn T F, ed. ) Science and social structure: a festschrift for Robert K. Merton. New York: NY Academy of Sciences, 1980. p. 147-57", made popular by his 1999 publication "Statistics on the Table"
- ^ Cohen, Joel E (1992). "Old words from the wise". Science 258: 876. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/citation/258/5084/876.
- ^ Diamond Jr., Arthur M (Spring 2006). "Measurement, Incentives, and Constraints in Stigler’s Economics of Science". The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 13 (1). http://cba.unomaha.edu/faculty/adiamond/WEB/DiamondPDFs/MeasurementStigler.pdf.
- ^ Menand, Louis (19 February 2007). "Notable Quotables". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/02/19/070219crbo_books_menand. Retrieved on 2009-03-27.
- Stigler, G. J. (1982a). The Economist as Preacher, and Other Essays. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
- Stigler, S. M. (1980). Stigler's law of eponymy. Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences, 39: 147-58 (Merton Frestschrift Volume, F. Gieryn (ed)).
- Stigler, S. M. (1983). Who discovered Bayes's theorem? The American Statistician, 37(4): 290-6.
[edit] External links
- Eponymy and Laws of Eponymy on Earliest known uses of some of the words of mathematics
- Malcolm Gladwell (December 19, 2006). "In the Air: Who says big ideas are rare?". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_gladwell?printable=true. Retrieved on 2008-05-06. Stigler's law is described near the end of the article
- Kern, Scott E (September/October 2002). "Whose Hypothesis? Ciphering, Sectorials, D Lesions, Freckles and the Operation of Stigler's Law". Cancer Biology & Therapy (Landes Bioscience) 1 (5): 571-581. ISSN 1555-8576. http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/cbt/article/225/. Retrieved on 28 March 2009.
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