The Ethics of Quantification and Why It Doesn't Work [microform] : or Life among the Numerologists, Inumerates, and Qualitatives / Gilbert Sax
- Bib ID:
- 5466843
- Format:
- Book and Microform
- Author:
- Sax, Gilbert
- Online Version:
- https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED269460
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- Description:
-
- [Washington, D.C.] : Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse, 1986
- 9 p.
- Summary:
-
The paper states that quantification is neither ethical nor unethical, but is ethically neutral. It is the behavior or intent of the human being that is clearly a matter of ethical concern. Like numerology and the sects of inumerates and qualitatives, there is not so much an unethical practice that is supported as there is a lack of vision and concern for other points of view. The qualitative and quantitative researchers have made it difficult to live in both their worlds even though there are no necessary contradictions between them. The quantifiers at the very least could have provided data to determine if students were attaining, or were even aware of, aesthetic values and ethical norms. If quantifiers detract students from a love of beauty or from a knowledge of ethical and unethical behavior, then quantifiers are failing their responsibilities, and their behaviors are examples of ethics gone wrong. Examples are given of scientism, a pseudoscientific belief that accepts the appearance and apparent successes of science without its essence, including a willingness to reexamine data, hypotheses, and theories when the evidence so suggests. Selected examples are presented regarding educational rationalizations that hinder understanding and free inquiry. (PN)
- Notes:
-
- ERIC Note: This paper is an excerpt from a paper written by Gilbert Sax and Claudia Krenz that will be published in a forthcoming book edited by Frank Besag. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (70th, San Francisco, CA, April 16-20, 1986).
- Researchers.
- May also be available online. Address as at 14/8/18: https://eric.ed.gov/
- Reproduction:
- Microfiche. [Washington D.C.]: ERIC Clearinghouse microfiches : positive.
- Subject:
- Available From:
- ERIC
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 1986
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