mar i e sand st röm 295 n my op inion, numbers are not to be trusted. In fact, they remind Ime of car dealers:While promising the world, they actually deliver as little as possible. Numbers would even seem to surpass the average car dealer, since they manage to make us doubt our own senses. Let us – for a case in point – consider statistics: Statistics is often described as the science of the collection, organization and interpretation of, primarily, numerical data.The results presume to represent, at the very least, reality. In fact, the persuasive character of statistical data would seem to imply that the results actually represent an improvement on the original, a kind of hyper reality. This is, however, far from the truth. By its very nature, numerical data is an extremely theoretical construct, whose existence is largely dependent on a person’s mind. Statistics hence concerns ideal, rather than real relations. Numerical data relies on a process of elimination by which complex and multidimensional relationships are stripped down to the bone. Whereas reality consists of at least three – counting time, four – dimensions; symbols, and in particular numbers, are strictly two-dimensional. Hence, describing the world with the aid of statistics is like painting a picture with only two colours or, more to the point, is like describing life without sound, smell or movement.The observer is left with the same intense feeling of alienation that watching silent films often provokes. Against this backdrop, it’s unsurprising that statistical data has been met with a certain amount of scepticism.The Harvard President, Lawrence Howell, famously wrote in 1909 that statistics, “All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is to try to think them again”.1 johann wol f gang goeth e Legal Doctrine – Master or Servant? 1 „Alles Gescheite ist schon gedacht worden.Man muß nur versuchen, es noch einmal zu denken“ in Wilhelm MeistersWanderjahre oder die Entsagenden, Book II (Betrachtungen im Sinne derWanderer. Kunst, Ethisches, Natur).
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