Limits of the Numerical

The Abuses and Uses of Quantification

Limits of the Numerical
Christopher Newfield, Anna Alexandrova, Stephen John
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Paperback
h229 x 152mm - 304pg
9 May 2022 US
International import eta 10-30 days
9780226817156
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This collection examines the uses of quantification in climate science, higher education, and health. Numbers may seem fragile-they are, after all, frequent objects of obfuscation or outright denial-but they have also never been more influential in our society, figuring into everything from college rankings to vaccine efficacy rates. This timely collection by a diverse group of humanists and social scientists challenges undue reverence or skepticism toward quantification and shows how it can be a force for good despite its many abuses. Limits of the Numerical focuses on quantification in several contexts: the role of numerical estimates and targets in explaining and planning for climate change; the quantification of outcomes in teaching and research; and numbers representing health, the effectiveness of medical interventions, and well-being more broadly. The authors complicate our understanding of these numbers, uncovering, for example, epistemic problems with some core numbers in climate science. But their theme is less the problems revealed by case studies than the methodological issues common to them all. This volume shows the many ways that qualitative and quantitative approaches can productively interact-how the limits of the numerical can be overcome through equitable partnerships with historical, institutional, and philosophical analysis.
"Limits of the Numerical shows with compelling detail, theoretical vision, and political urgency just how and why numbers matter. As J. L. Austin and Judith Butler showed us how we do things with words, the authors of Limits of the Numerical show us how we do things with numbers. " * Chad Wellmon, University of Virginia * "The availability and power of numbers in our ' data-driven world' have never been greater, and, for just that reason, are greatly contested. Limits of the Numerical explores the paradoxes of quantitative reasoning that have arisen as a corollary of its power and recognizes that a blind reverence for numbers undermines expertise as much as it supports it. These stories of numbers are inescapably human ones. " * Theodore M. Porter, University of California, Los Angeles * "In the confusing context of both the pandemic and global warming, this compelling book is a timely unraveling of the uses and abuses of statistical models, quantified measures, big data, and numerical targets. Limits of the Numerical paves the way for renewed scientific controversies and public debates on the work of quantification and its politics. " * Isabelle Bruno, University of Lille and Academic Institute of France (IUF) *
Christopher Newfield is director of research at the Independent Social Research Foundation, London. Anna Alexandrova is professor of philosophy of science in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, where she is also a fellow of King' s College. Stephen John is the Hatton Lecturer in the Philosophy of Public Health in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, where he is also a fellow of Pembroke College.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9780226817156
Published: 9 May 2022
Published In: United States
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Format: Paperback
Height: 229mm
Width: 152mm
Pages: 304

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