Social and Political Uses of Quantification

量化的社会和政治用途

• 批准号: 9021707
• 负责人: Theodore Porter
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Individual Award
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1991
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1991-07-01 至 1993-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9021707&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Social; Political; Uses; Quantification

Dr. Porter is studying the social and political role of quantification. He argues that the "objectivity" of quantitative arguments is not simply a matter of appearing true, but also of being highly standardized, or governed by explicit rules. Quantitative reasoning is valued in the political realm in part because it seems to be independent of the biases and interests of individuals, and hence to be quintessentially "public" knowledge. Dr. Porter is examining from this standpoint the history of some of the most widely-used modern methods for reducing decisions to calculations. His research emphasizes the uses of cost-benefit analysis and, if time is available, statistical methods for detecting weak causes (such as carcinogenicity in chemicals). This is the first serious historical study of either of these methods, and indeed the first systematic attempt to understand historically the vastly-increased importance of quantification in public life. His standpoint throughout is that of the history of science, and he compares these public uses of calculation with quantitative norms for reporting experimental results, such as the significance test.

波特博士正在研究的社会和政治作用， 量化 他认为，定量分析的“客观性” 论证不仅仅是看起来真实的问题，而且是 被高度标准化，或由明确的规则管理。 定量推理在政治领域中部分受到重视， 因为它看起来独立于 个人，因此是典型的“公共”知识。 波特博士从这个角度研究了一些 最广泛使用的现代方法，以减少决策， 计算。 他的研究强调了成本效益的使用 分析和统计方法，如果有时间， 检测弱原因（如化学物质的致癌性）。 这是第一次认真的历史研究这两个 方法，实际上是第一次系统地试图了解 从历史上看， 公共生活。 他的观点贯穿始终， 科学，他将这些公共计算的使用与 报告实验结果的定量规范，例如 显著性检验。