Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1278

Carbon of a letter from Heath to James K. Senior, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

October 7, 1939

Original is missing.

Dear Doctor Senior:

Your contributions towards the development of a Science of Society, a science having social organization as its subject matter and field of functioning, has interest­ed me very much.  I believe the most alluring adventures of the mind are yet to be found through the application in this wider field of the analytic technique practiced by the natural sciences.

Since natural science is primarily quantitative, it seems essential that quantitative units of measurement be first determined before there can be any mathematical analysis or other examination.

The small attempt that I have made in this direction under the title “The Energy Concept of Population”, proposes a unit of population and certain simple modes of manipulating that unit which seem to lead to interesting and promising, although very elementary results.  It may interest you to observe how the quantitative and qualitative aspects of population energy seem mathematically to merge.  I have attempted to apply this energy conception to the analysis of some specific social institutions, and I am impressed by the apparent facility with which this can be done.

It would gratify me to know whether this conception of population as energy in process of functioning can be unified with your own conceptions in this or in analogous fields.

The opportunity afforded by the recent Congress for the Unity of Science for direct contact with your thought and personality was greatly enjoyed.

                          Sincerely yours,