View source for Stigler's law of eponymy

{{Short description|Observation that no scientific discovery is named after its discoverer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
'''Stigler's law of eponymy''', proposed by [[University of Chicago]] [[statistics]] professor [[Stephen Stigler]] in his 1980 publication "Stigler's law of [[eponymy]]",<ref>{{cite book|editor-last= Gieryn|editor-first= T. F.|title= Science and social structure: a festschrift for Robert K. Merton|publisher= NY Academy of Sciences|year= 1980|pages= [https://archive.org/details/sciencesocialstr0039unse/page/147 147–57]|location= New York|isbn= 0-89766-043-9|url= https://archive.org/details/sciencesocialstr0039unse/page/147}}, republished in Stigler's collection "Statistics on the Table"</ref> states that no scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer. Examples include [[Hubble's law]], which was derived by [[Georges Lemaître]] two years before [[Edwin Hubble]]; the [[Pythagorean theorem]], which [[Pythagorean theorem#History|was known]] to [[Babylonian mathematics|Babylonian mathematicians]] before Pythagoras; and [[Halley's Comet]], which was observed by astronomers since at least 240 BC (although its official designation is due to the first ever [[Edmond Halley#Publications and inventions|mathematical prediction]] of such astronomical phenomenon in the sky, not to its discovery).
Stigler attributed the discovery of Stigler's law to [[sociologist]] [[Robert K. Merton]], from whom Stigler stole credit so that it would be an example of the law. The same observation had previously also been made by many others.<ref>For example, [[Henry Dudeney]] noted in his 1917 ''Amusements in Mathematics'' [https://archive.org/details/AmusementsInMathematicsDudeneyHenry/page/n319 solution 129] that [[Pell's equation]] was called that "apparently because Pell neither first propounded the question nor first solved it!"</ref>
==Derivation==
Historical acclaim for discoveries is often assigned to persons of note who bring attention to an idea that is not yet widely known, whether or not that person was its original inventor&nbsp;– theories may be named long after their discovery. In the case of [[eponymy]], the idea becomes named after that person, even if that person is acknowledged by [[History of science|historians of science]] not to be the one who discovered it. Often, several people will [[Multiple discovery|arrive at a new idea around the same time]], as in the case of [[calculus]]. It can be dependent on the publicity of the new work and the fame of its publisher as to whether the scientist's name becomes historically associated.
==Similar concepts<!--'Boyer's law' and 'Boyer's Law' redirect here-->==
There is a similar quote attributed to [[Mark Twain]]:<blockquote>It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone or any other important thing—and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. He added his little mite—that is all he did. These object lessons should teach us that ninety-nine parts of all things that proceed from the intellect are plagiarisms, pure and simple; and the lesson ought to make us modest. But nothing can do that.<ref>{{cite web |year=1903 |title=Letter to Helen Keller |url=https://www.afb.org/about-afb/history/helen-keller/letters/mark-twain-samuel-l-clemens/letter-miss-keller-mark-twain-st |website=[[American Foundation for the Blind]] |publisher=}}</ref></blockquote>
Stephen Stigler's father, the economist [[George Stigler]], also examined the process of discovery in [[economics]]. He said, "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.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Diamond |first=Arthur M. Jr. |date=December 2005 |pages=639–640 |url=http://www.artdiamond.com/DiamondPDFs/stigecs17.pdf |title=Measurement, incentives, and constraints in Stigler's economics of science |journal=The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought |volume=12 |issue=4 <!-- pp.635–661 --> |doi=10.1080/09672560500370292 |s2cid=154618308 |access-date=12 January 2015}} (Link is to Art Diamond's personal web site.)</ref> Similar arguments were made in regards to accepted ideas relative to the state of science by Thomas Kuhn in ''[[The Structure of Scientific Revolutions]]''.<ref>{{Citation |last=Kuhn |first=Thomas |title=The Probabilistic Revolution |date=1987 |volume=1: Ideas in History |pages=719–720 |editor-last1=Kruger |editor-first1=Lorenz |editor-last2=Daston |editor-first2=Lorraine J. |editor-last3=Heidelberger |editor-first3=Michael |contribution=What Are Scientific Revolutions? |contribution-url=http://www.units.miamioh.edu/technologyandhumanities/kuhn.htm |place=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=MIT Press |author-link=Thomas Kuhn}}</ref>
The [[Matthew effect (sociology)|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. Merton notes: {{blockquote|This pattern of recognition, skewed in favor of the established scientist, appears principally<br/>
(i) in cases of collaboration and<br/>
(ii) in cases of independent multiple discoveries made by scientists of distinctly different rank.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Merton |first=Robert K. |date=5 January 1968 |title=The Matthew Effect in Science |journal=Science |volume=159 |issue=3810 |doi=10.1126/science.159.3810.56 |pmid=17737466 |pages=56–63 |bibcode=1968Sci...159...56M|s2cid=3526819 }}</ref>}}
The effect applies specifically to women through the [[Matilda effect]].
'''Boyer's law'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> was named by [[Hubert Kennedy]] in 1972. It says, "Mathematical formulas and theorems are usually not named after their original discoverers" and was named after [[Carl Boyer]], whose book ''A History of Mathematics'' contains many examples of this law. Kennedy observed that "it is perhaps interesting to note that this is probably a rare instance of a law whose statement confirms its own validity".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kennedy |first=H.C. |date=January 1972 |title=Who discovered Boyer's Law? |journal=The American Mathematical Monthly |volume=79 |number=1 |pages=66–67 |doi=10.2307/2978134|jstor=2978134 }}</ref>
"Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it" is an [[adage]] attributed to [[Alfred North Whitehead]].<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/02/19/070219crbo_books_menand |title=Notable Quotables |last=Menand |first=Louis |date=19 February 2007 |magazine=The New Yorker |accessdate=27 March 2009}}</ref>
==List of examples==
{{main|List of examples of Stigler's law}}
==See also==
* [[List of misnamed theorems]]
* [[List of persons considered father or mother of a scientific field]]
* [[Eponym]]
* [[Scientific priority]]
* [[Matthew effect]]
* [[Matilda effect]]
* [[Obliteration by incorporation]]
* [[Theories and sociology of the history of science]]
* [[Standing on the shoulders of giants]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
* {{Cite book|first=George J.|last=Stigler|author-link=George J. Stigler|year=1982a|title=The Economist as Preacher, and Other Essays|location=Chicago|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|isbn=0-226-77430-9|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/economistaspreac0000stig_z4o2}}
* {{cite journal|first=Stephen M.|last= Stigler|author-link=Stephen M. Stigler |year=1980|title=Stigler's law of eponymy|journal=Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences|volume=39|pages= 147–58 |editor-first= F. |editor-last=Gieryn |doi=10.1111/j.2164-0947.1980.tb02775.x}} ([[Festschrift]] for [[Robert K. Merton]])
* {{Cite journal|doi= 10.2307/2682766| first=Stephen M.|last= Stigler|author-link=Stephen M. Stigler |year=1983|title= Who discovered Bayes's theorem? |journal=The American Statistician|volume= 37|issue=4|pages= 290–6| jstor=2682766}}
* {{cite journal|last=Kern|first=Scott E|date=September–October 2002|title=Whose Hypothesis? Ciphering, Sectorials, D Lesions, Freckles and the Operation of Stigler's Law|journal=Cancer Biology & Therapy|publisher=Landes Bioscience|volume=1|issue=5|pages=571–581|issn=1555-8576|url=http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/cbt/article/225/|accessdate=28 March 2009|doi=10.4161/cbt.1.5.225|pmid=12496492|doi-access=free}}
==External links==
* {{cite web|url=http://jeff560.tripod.com/e.html |title=Eponymy and Laws of Eponymy|first=Jeff|last= Miller}} on {{cite web|first=Jeff|last= Miller|url=http://jeff560.tripod.com/mathword.html |title=Earliest known uses of some of the words of mathematics}}
* {{cite magazine
|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]
|accessdate=6 May 2008
|title=In the Air: Who says big ideas are rare?
|author= Malcolm Gladwell
|author-link= Malcolm Gladwell
|date=19 December 2006
|url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_gladwell?printable=true}} Stigler's law is described near the end of the article
{{History of science}}
[[Category:Sociology of scientific knowledge]]
[[Category:Scientific method]]
[[Category:Eponyms]]
[[Category:Eponymous rules]]
[[Category:1980 introductions]]