Trust in Numbers (eBook)

The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life

Theodore M. Porter (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020
344 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-21054-4 (ISBN)

Infos

A foundational work on historical and social studies of quantificationWhat accounts for the prestige of quantitative methods? The usual answer is that quantification is desirable in social investigation as a result of its successes in science. Trust in Numbers questions whether such success in the study of stars, molecules, or cells should be an attractive model for research on human societies, and examines why the natural sciences are highly quantitative in the first place. Theodore Porter argues that a better understanding of the attractions of quantification in business, government, and social research brings a fresh perspective to its role in psychology, physics, and medicine. Quantitative rigor is not inherent in science but arises from political and social pressures, and objectivity derives its impetus from cultural contexts. In a new preface, the author sheds light on the current infatuation with quantitative methods, particularly at the intersection of science and bureaucracy.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 18.8.2020
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Geschichte der Mathematik
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften
• Schlagworte: accountant • Accounting • Actuary • Advertising • Agriculture • americans • Apprenticeship • arbitrariness • Archives nationales (France) • bureaucrat • bushel • Calculation • Career • Christianity • Common sense • Consideration • Cost–benefit analysis • credibility • Criticism • Curriculum • Decision-Making • disadvantage • distrust • Economics • economist • elitism • Employment • engineer • Engineering • Entrepreneurship • Experiment • Explanation • Handbook • Ideology • inference • Insider • Inspection • Institute of Actuaries • Institution • insurance • interdependence • Legislation • life insurance • Mathematics • Measurement • Multitude • National Science Foundation • Natural science • Negotiation • Neoclassical Economics • phenomenon • Philosopher • Philosophy • Physician • physicist • Political culture • Political Economy • Political Science • Politics • Positivism • Prediction • Prejudice • Probability • psychologist • Psychology • Publication • Public knowledge • Public sphere • public utility • Pure Mathematics • Quantification (science) • quantitative research • Quantity • QUILL • reason • Regulatory Agency • result • rhetoric • salary • Science • Scientific Method • Scientist • Self-Interest • skepticism • Social Science • Sociology • Standardization • Statistic • Statistical Science • statistician • Statistics • Subjectivity • Subsidy • Superiority (short story) • Tax • Technology • Textbook • theory • Uncertainty • Writing
• ISBN-10: 0-691-21054-3 / 0691210543
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-21054-4 / 9780691210544