Social and Political Uses of Quantification

波特博士正在研究量化的社会和政治作用。他认为定量论证的“客观性”不仅仅是看起来真实的问题，而且是高度标准化的问题，或者是由明确的规则支配的问题。定量推理在政治领域受到重视，部分原因是它似乎独立于个人的偏见和利益，因此是典型的“公共”知识。波特博士正从这个角度研究一些最广泛使用的将决策简化为计算的现代方法的历史。他的研究强调使用成本效益分析，如果时间允许，还使用统计方法来检测微弱的原因（如化学品中的致癌性）。这是对这两种方法中的任何一种进行的第一次严肃的历史研究，实际上也是第一次系统地尝试从历史上理解量化在公共生活中日益增加的重要性。他的观点始终是科学史的观点，他将这些公开使用的计算与报告实验结果的定量规范（如显著性检验）进行了比较。

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.