The Uses and Misuses of Data and Models: The Mathematization of the Human Sciences

There can be no question that the amount of ‘human information’ in our culture has increased by leaps and bounds. At the same time, discussion of values, norms and purpose is often missing from the discourse of social research - especially by those who work within the positivist framework. The authors of this book develop principles that can guide the use of data and models in the human sciences. Writing as scholars who are at home with empirical and mathematical social science, yet taking seriously the critiques of this heritage, they propose ways of developing norms without becoming subjective.