Sir William Petty: Polymath, 1623-1687
An accomplished Latin poet, no less distinguished in “council and prudent matters of state,” an expert cartographer and an enterprising ship-builder, William Petty was a many-sided man, typical of the scientific spirit of the later seventeenth century. By K. Theodore Hoppen.
William Petty was one of those rare persons who find it possible to combine theoretical intellectual ability of the first order with considerable success in the practical affairs of life. Perhaps this was due to his instinctive belief that these two fields of activity, though in many ways separate and distinct, nonetheless touched upon one another more frequently and at more points than is often imagined by men of less incisive judgment.
Born into a century almost overcrowded with ability, he stands out, not so much as a result of any precise or dazzling scientific discovery, but because of his great interest in quantitative studies, mastery of which has rightly earned him the title of the founder of modern economic statistics.
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