Quantifying the Human: Values in Measurement or Measuring Value?

Cristian Larroulet Philippi (Cambridge University)

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Quantifying the Human: Values in Measurement or Measuring Value?

Quantitative measurement in the human sciences remains controversial. Are depression scales, intelligence tests, etc. valid measurement instruments? Do they deliver quantitative or merely ordinal information? I discuss two approaches for understanding practices of quantitative measurement. One uses causal notions to characterize the attribute at stake and to understand how it relates to measurement indications. It aims at standard epistemic desiderata in science (discovery, explanation, prediction) and offers good answers to traditional worries about human attributes (namely, are they really quantitative?) and about their measurement instruments (namely, are they valid?). A second approach uses the notion of value (Hausman 2015) to make sense of quantification practices. This approach does not resemble what scientists think of their measurement practices: it is not designed for the testing of tentative concepts but rather to standardize political decision making. This approach, I argue, is the most plausible candidate for making sense of some human sciences’ measurement practices as quantifying anything. Such is the case for measurements that (i) combine distinct dimensions of the phenomena at stake and (ii) for which we don’t observe serious efforts aiming at embedding such measurements in predictive and explanatory networks. I illustrate with two examples: depression severity (HAMD) and the Human Development Index (HDI)

Cristian Larroulet Philippi is a research fellow in history and philosophy of science at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge. He finished his PhD at HPS Cambridge in 2023. Both his PhD dissertation and current research focus on the challenges around quantitative measurement in the social sciences (including economics and parts of medicine). His research interests also include how do values enter into the practice of science and causal methodology. He previously studied and did research in economics.