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SUMMARY:Psychometric validation as theory avoidance - Anna Alexandrova (De
 partment of History and Philosophy of Science)
DTSTART:20150225T130000Z
DTEND:20150225T143000Z
UID:TALK57306@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Christopher Clarke
DESCRIPTION:If all theories of measurement agree on a single requirement i
 t is that a measure of a phenomenon should be informed by our best theory 
 of this phenomenon. But what is the relevant theory when the\nphenomenon i
 s well-being\, or indeed any other picked out by a thick concept? On the c
 urrent practice\, measures of well-being are validated by checking the psy
 chometric properties of the questionnaires\, whether\nthe results correlat
 e well with other factors known to be relevant to well-being and whether t
 hey accord reasonably with subjects' own understanding of what well-being 
 is. Importantly\, these measures are\nnot checked against any robust norma
 tive theory of well-being. To anyone who takes well-being to be a value th
 is status quo looks wrong. Indeed it looks like avoidance of relevant theo
 ry. Yet bringing in\nconstraints on measures of well-being from philosophy
  raises worries: who are philosophers to tell people what their well-being
  is\, and to tell scientists how to measure it? In this talk we first pres
 ent a\ncoherentist interpretation of the current validation procedures and
 \, second\, raise the theory-avoidance objection. Finally we reflect on ho
 w to strike the right balance between\, on the one hand\, acting like a\np
 hilosopher-kings and\, on the other\, treating the scientific process uncr
 itically.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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