LAMBERT, JOHANN HEINRICH. - ESTABLISHING A MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF ORDER.

Essai de Taxéométrie ou sur la mesure de l'Ordre.

Berlin, C.F. Voss, 1772. 4to. Without wrappers as extracted from "Nouveaux Mémoires de l'Academie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres", Annee 1770. With titlepage to 1770 with engraved vignette. Pp. 327-342.

First appearance of this importent paper in which Lambert established a mathematical theory of order in all sorts of classifications. He treats the problem of order and its measures not only in relation to natural history or any domain of particulars, but abstractly as a problem of epistemology in general. He attempts to create a new mathematics of ordered systems and to measure by a fraction the elements to which any collection of items departed from the ordered system, and he carries his mathematical ideal even into taxonomy and systematics.

Order-nr.: 44755