tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37421406.post2343624848335275854..comments2023-09-30T08:20:57.971-04:00Comments on Bradley Wright's Blog: Confessions of an empiricist IIBrad Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07800309833079635465noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37421406.post-31013174178142023482007-05-10T20:40:00.000-04:002007-05-10T20:40:00.000-04:00Frankly, I often have no idea what post-moderns ar...Frankly, I often have no idea what post-moderns are saying... From what I gather, though, I think they go too far in dismissing numbers. <BR/><BR/>For me the value of numbers is the strength of the sampling design usually associated with them. My beef is more with the thoughtless acceptance of statistical assumptions.<BR/><BR/>Of course, if you ever want to lose faith in quant data, just watch it being collected. Ugh! So many misinterpretations and various mistakes.Brad Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07800309833079635465noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37421406.post-63817788347162686292007-05-10T16:31:00.000-04:002007-05-10T16:31:00.000-04:00What do you think of the post-modern critiques of ...What do you think of the post-modern critiques of empiricism? As a rather basic version of that: as a composition instructor, I've noticed how my students really tend to value "facts"--meaning quantifiable numbers--over more qualitative measures. Most pointedly, they say that if a source presents these "facts" it can't be biased. Numbers don't lie, they think. But that's not always true, since surveys and studies may slant data through the questions and categories they create. Obviously, it's a big issue, but do you have thoughts on this?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com