Limits Of The Numerical

Download or read book Limits of the Numerical written by Christopher Newfield and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-06-24 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.