ABSTRACT
The study of social phenomena dates back to antiquity. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were deeply interested in them. For Socrates, indeed, as for Pope many centuries later, “the proper study of mankind is man.” The idea that human nature is influenced to some extent by the climate and other physical properties of the countries in which men live was first given prominence in the sixteenth century. The animals found in different regions of the Earth vary considerably with regional differences. Men likewise vary greatly in character and disposition according to the different nature of the countries in which they live. The introduction of statistical method into the study of social phenomena in the course of the seventeenth century was an event of first-rate importance, and destined to prove very fruitful in subsequent centuries. The practice of life insurance seems to date from the sixteenth century, if not earlier. But the basis of such contracts appears to have been rather arbitrary.
