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Value Judgments (value + judgment)
Selected AbstractsUses of Value Judgments in Science: A General Argument, with Lessons from a Case Study of Feminist Research on DivorceHYPATIA, Issue 1 2004ELIZABETH ANDERSON The underdetermination argument establishes that scientists may use political values to guide inquiry, without providing criteria for distinguishing legitimate from illegitimate guidance. This paper supplies such criteria. Analysis of the confused arguments against value-laden science reveals the fundamental criterion of illegitimate guidance: when value judgments operate to drive inquiry to a predetermined conclusion. A case study of feminist research on divorce reveals numerous legitimate ways that values can guide science without violating this standard. [source] Implicit Value Judgments in the Measurement of Health InequalitiesTHE MILBANK QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2010SAM HARPER Context: Quantitative estimates of the magnitude, direction, and rate of change of health inequalities play a crucial role in creating and assessing policies aimed at eliminating the disproportionate burden of disease in disadvantaged populations. It is generally assumed that the measurement of health inequalities is a value-neutral process, providing objective data that are then interpreted using normative judgments about whether a particular distribution of health is just, fair, or socially acceptable. Methods: We discuss five examples in which normative judgments play a role in the measurement process itself, through either the selection of one measurement strategy to the exclusion of others or the selection of the type, significance, or weight assigned to the variables being measured. Findings: Overall, we find that many commonly used measures of inequality are value laden and that the normative judgments implicit in these measures have important consequences for interpreting and responding to health inequalities. Conclusions: Because values implicit in the generation of health inequality measures may lead to radically different interpretations of the same underlying data, we urge researchers to explicitly consider and transparently discuss the normative judgments underlying their measures. We also urge policymakers and other consumers of health inequalities data to pay close attention to the measures on which they base their assessments of current and future health policies. [source] A Hidden Agenda: Gender in Selected Writings by Theodor Adorno and Max HorkheimerORBIS LITERARUM, Issue 4 2001Heidi M. Schlipphacke In Dialektik der Aufklärung (1944,47), Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno criticize the "bourgeois subject" as a perpetrator of the exploitation and domination of "nature." Within the parameters of "bourgeois ideology,""woman" functions as a representative of "nature." Although Horkheimer and Adorno reflect critically on the utilization and misuse of "woman," this essay explores the extent to which the concepts "masculine" and "feminine" function as implicit theoretical categories in selected writings by these authors. Indeed, a close reading of selected passages in works by Horkheimer and Adorno reveals that gendered categories in these texts carry with them a value judgment. While Horkheimer and Adorno describe the individual of late capitalism as "emasculated" and feminized ("castrated"), Adorno praises artists such as Arnold Schönberg, who manifests a potent masculinity. In fact, Adorno often writes about individuals and art works in terms which privilege "masculinity" as opposed to an emasculating "femininity." Value judgments which employ gendered categories, then, stand in contradiction to the explicitly critical project of Dialektik der Aufklärung. [source] Social Functioning, Psychological Functioning, and Quality of Life in EpilepsyEPILEPSIA, Issue 9 2001Theo P. B. M. Suurmeijer Summary: ,Purpose: Part of our research intended to explain "Quality of Life" (QoL) differences between people with epilepsy. To this end, a series of already existing generic and disease-specific health status measures were used. In this study, they were considered as determinants of people's QoL, whereas QoL itself was conceived as a general "value judgment" about one's life. Methods: From the records of four outpatient clinics, 210 persons with epilepsy were randomly selected. During their visit to the outpatient clinic, they completed a questionnaire assessing, among other things, health perceptions and social and psychological functioning. Additional information about their medical and psychosocial status was gathered from the patient files. Data were analysed by using a hierarchical regression analysis. Results: In decreasing order of importance, "psychological distress,""loneliness,""adjustment and coping," and "stigma perception" appeared to contribute most significantly to the outcome QoL as judged by the patients themselves, regardless of their physical status. In the final model, none of the clinical variables (onset, seizure frequency, side effects of antiepileptic drugs) contributed significantly anymore to the patients' "quality-of-life judgement." Apparently the effect of other variables such as seizure frequency and health perceptions, medication and side effects, life fulfilment, self-esteem, and mastery is mediated by these variables. Conclusions: Because all of the variance in QoL of the patients was explained by the psychosocial variables included in this study, health professionals should be aware of the significance of the psychosocial functioning of the patients and the role it plays in the achievement of a good QoL. Both informal and professional support may be an adjunct to conventional treatment. In future research, this issue should be given high priority. [source] A Hidden Agenda: Gender in Selected Writings by Theodor Adorno and Max HorkheimerORBIS LITERARUM, Issue 4 2001Heidi M. Schlipphacke In Dialektik der Aufklärung (1944,47), Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno criticize the "bourgeois subject" as a perpetrator of the exploitation and domination of "nature." Within the parameters of "bourgeois ideology,""woman" functions as a representative of "nature." Although Horkheimer and Adorno reflect critically on the utilization and misuse of "woman," this essay explores the extent to which the concepts "masculine" and "feminine" function as implicit theoretical categories in selected writings by these authors. Indeed, a close reading of selected passages in works by Horkheimer and Adorno reveals that gendered categories in these texts carry with them a value judgment. While Horkheimer and Adorno describe the individual of late capitalism as "emasculated" and feminized ("castrated"), Adorno praises artists such as Arnold Schönberg, who manifests a potent masculinity. In fact, Adorno often writes about individuals and art works in terms which privilege "masculinity" as opposed to an emasculating "femininity." Value judgments which employ gendered categories, then, stand in contradiction to the explicitly critical project of Dialektik der Aufklärung. [source] Uses of Value Judgments in Science: A General Argument, with Lessons from a Case Study of Feminist Research on DivorceHYPATIA, Issue 1 2004ELIZABETH ANDERSON The underdetermination argument establishes that scientists may use political values to guide inquiry, without providing criteria for distinguishing legitimate from illegitimate guidance. This paper supplies such criteria. Analysis of the confused arguments against value-laden science reveals the fundamental criterion of illegitimate guidance: when value judgments operate to drive inquiry to a predetermined conclusion. A case study of feminist research on divorce reveals numerous legitimate ways that values can guide science without violating this standard. [source] Domain Poisoning: The Redundancy of Current Models of Assessment through ArtINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ART & DESIGN EDUCATION, Issue 3 2006Tom Hardy With the National Foundation for Educational Research concluding that schools which include Contemporary Art Practice (CAP) in their curriculum add significant value to their students' art experience, [1] and at a time when much of the discussion around contemporary art questions the value of the art object itself, this article addresses the question: how are we to engage students with the contemporary and, at the same time, make value judgments of their own work? And, while the professional fine art world subscribes increasingly to the ,rhizomatic' [2] template of art processes, how do we square this with current assessment criteria which require that students produce work where the preparation and finished product occupy separate domains and rely on ,procedures and practices that reach back to the nineteenth century'? [3] By way of a postscript to the inconclusive findings of the Eppi-centre art and design review group [4], this article will also address what we have lost in the drive for domain-based assessment and how to regain some of the ground lost since the introduction of Curriculum 2000. [source] Valuing the Gilbert ModelPERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2006An Exploratory Study Leaders such as Thomas Gilbert, Geary Rummier, and Edward Deming have argued that the greatest leverage for solving performance problems lies with solutions targeted at system or environmental factors (those under the control of management) versus individual performer factors. A 12-item research instrument titled Achieving Productive Performance (APP) was developed based on the six variables that make up Gilbert's human performance model. MBA candidates whoworkfull-time primarily in middle management positions were asked to make value judgments on strategies for producing productive performance (where value for the performance exceeds the costs), Results support the concept of leverage espoused by Gilbert, Rummier, and Deming. Implications for workplace learning and performance professionals are discussed. [source] The Language of Practical PhilosophyRATIO JURIS, Issue 3 2002Ota Weinberger Kant's criticism is based on the idea that all possible knowledge of facts is determined by the immanent structure of our apparatus of cognition, and that therefore we have no access to reality as it is per se ("Ding an sich"). In modern analytical philosophy some elements of this view survived, namely, the distinction between framework construction and actual data of experience, supposition or voluntary setting. The conditio humana is characterised by our capacity of acting. Acting is defined as behaviour determined and controlled by information processes. The structure of these processes defines the semantics and logical principles of practical philosophy. From this view follows the conception of value judgments, the logic of preferences, formal teleology, the analysis of utility and norm logic. The framework theories should be open in order to be able to express all possible theoretical views, namely, subjectivism as well as objectivism. The paper gives a concise account of the systems of practical thought (formal axiology, formal teleology, preference logic and norm logic) and their gnoseological problems. [source] Valuation Bias in Commercial Appraisal: A Transaction Price Feedback ExperimentREAL ESTATE ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2001J. Andrew Hansz Experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that transaction price feedback may bias valuation judgment. Among participating appraisers, evidence of asymmetrical response was found. The group receiving transaction feedback indicating that current judgments were "too low" responded with judgments in subsequent, unrelated valuations that were significantly higher than the group that received no feedback. The response from "too high" feedback was in the expected direction (lower value judgments) but was not significant. Additionally, valuation dispersion of around 10% revealed in these experiments is consistent with studies of valuation variability and may reflect an upper bound of typical commercial appraisal dispersion. [source] | ||||||||||||||||