Introduction: Arguing from Social Facts

Prefects and Geometers

Judges and Astronomers

Averages and the Realism of Aggregates

Correlation and the Realism of Causes

Statistics and the State: France and Great Britain

Statistics and the State: Germany and the United States

The Part for the Whole: Monographs or Representative Sampling

Classifying and Encoding

Modeling and Adjusting

Conclusion: Disputing the Indisputable

Alain Desrosières is Administrateur, Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques, Paris.

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