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Accepted manuscript

We Should not Align Quantitative Measures with Stakeholder Values

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2025

Miguel Ohnesorge*
Affiliation:
Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, UK. Email: mo459@cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

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There is a growing consensus among philosophers that quantifying value-laden concepts can be epistemically successful and politically legitimate if all value-laden choices in the process of quantification are aligned with stakeholder values. I argue that proponents of this view have failed to argue for its basic premise: successful quantification is sufficiently unconstrained to be achievable along multiple, stakeholder-specific pathways. I then challenge this premise by considering a rare example of successful value-laden quantification in seismology. Seismologists quantified earthquake size precisely by excluding stakeholder values from measure design and testing.

Information

Type
Contributed Paper
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Philosophy of Science Association