Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Dedication
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Notes on measurement
- Part I Theoretical methods
- Part II Applications to theoretical problems
- Part III Empirical verification
- 12 Statistical background
- 13 Empirical relations among variables
- 14 An empirical application: occupational preferences and the quality of life
- 15 Getting on without measures
- Index
15 - Getting on without measures
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Dedication
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Notes on measurement
- Part I Theoretical methods
- Part II Applications to theoretical problems
- Part III Empirical verification
- 12 Statistical background
- 13 Empirical relations among variables
- 14 An empirical application: occupational preferences and the quality of life
- 15 Getting on without measures
- Index
Summary
The preceding pages have considered the problem of thinking – in an intellectually sophisticated way – about phenomena that are difficult, if not impossible, to scale. (A detailed summary has been provided in Section 1.2.) In so doing, the objectives set out at the beginning of Chapter 1 have largely been met. At this point, however, it is interesting to observe briefly a few ways in which life structures emerging out of differing cultural and historical circumstances have cohered quite independently of abilities to calibrate. As a practical matter, it turns out that human beings are able to get on surprisingly well without measures or even numbers.
First of all, it is clear that numbers themselves are not needed to count. Certain orthodox Jews, for example, require that at least ten men, a minyan, be present to conduct particular religious services. Before they start, a ten-word sentence is recited in which each man is identified with one word. If the sentence is completed, then the minyan has been constituted and the service can begin (Zaslavsky). As a second illustration, the Kpelle people of Liberia have no independent abstract numbers in their language. Objects are still “counted,” however, and the results of any particular count appear in number-words that always must modify a noun or pronoun (Gay and Cole).
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- Information
- Analysis Without Measurement , pp. 291 - 296Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1983