From Utility Measurement to the Representational Theory of Measurement

2018 ◽  
pp. 247-260
Author(s):  
Ivan Moscati
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Measurement ◽  
Measurement Theory ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Utility Analysis ◽  
Utility Measurement ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theory Project ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Dominant Theory

Chapter 15 offers a conclusion to the history of measurement theory by reconstructing the origins of the representational theory of measurement in the early work of Patrick Suppes. In particular, the chapter shows that Suppes’s superseding of the unit-based understanding of measurement that he had embraced in the early 1950s, his endorsement of a liberal definition of measurement à la Stanley Smith Stevens in the mid-1950s, his conceiving of the project of an axiomatic underpinning of this notion of measurement in the late 1950s, and the realization of this project during the 1960s all have their origins in the utility analysis research he conducted from 1953 to 1957 within the Stanford Value Theory Project. The representational theory of measurement received full-fledged expression in Foundations of Measurement (1971), a book coauthored by Suppes, Duncan Luce, David Krantz, and Amos Tversky, which quickly became the dominant theory of measurement.

Measuring Utility

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Moscati
Keyword(s):  
Utility Theory ◽  
Measurement Theory ◽  
Expected Utility Theory ◽  
Utility Analysis ◽  
Von Neumann ◽  
Utility Measurement ◽  
Utility Concept ◽  
History Of ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
Marginal Revolution

The book reconstructs the history of utility measurement in economics, from the marginal revolution of the 1870s to the beginning of behavioral economics in the mid-1980s. Part I covers 1870–1910 and discusses the issue of utility measurement in the theories of Jevons, Menger, Walras, and other early utility theorists. Part II deals with the emergence of the notions of ordinal and cardinal utility during 1900–1945 and discusses two early attempts to give an empirical content to the notion of utility. Part III focuses on the 1945–1955 debate on utility measurement originated by von Neumann and Morgenstern’s expected utility theory (EUT). Part IV reconstructs the experimental attempts to measure the utility of money between 1950 and 1985 within the framework provided by EUT. The book does four main things. First, it reconstructs in detail economists’ ideas and discussions about utility measurement from 1870 to 1985 and their attempts to measure utility empirically. Second, it brings into focus the interplay among the evolution of utility analysis, economists’ ideas about utility measurement, and their conception of what measurement in general means. Third, it explores the hitherto underresearched relationships among the history of utility measurement in economics, the history of the measurement of sensations in psychology, and the history of measurement theory in general. Finally, it discusses some methodological problems related to utility measurement, such as the epistemological status of the utility concept and its measures. The book closes with a brief overview of post-1985 research trends in utility measurement.

Prologue

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ivan Moscati
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Measurement Theory ◽  
Revealed Preference ◽  
Demand Analysis ◽  
Utility Analysis ◽  
Utility Measurement ◽  
Preference Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Econometric Approach ◽  
Revealed Preference Theory

The prologue outlines the main passages in the history of utility measurement in economics and presents the four main goals of the book. First, the book reconstructs in detail economists’ ideas and discussions about utility measurement from 1870 to 1985. Second, it brings into focus the interplay between the evolution of utility analysis, economists’ ideas about utility measurement, and their conception of what measurement in general means. Third, it explores the relationships between the history of utility measurement in economics, the history of the measurement of sensations in psychology, and the history of measurement theory in general. Finally, it discusses some epistemological problems related to utility measurement. Not discussed in the book are the measurement of social welfare, revealed preference theory, the post-1950 econometric approach to demand analysis, and the analysis of discrete choices initiated in the 1970s.

scholarly journals Radiological Weapons (Excerpts from the History of Ban Talks)

2020 ◽  
pp. 184-199
Author(s):  
Yurii Kostenko
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Diplomatic History ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Nuclear Terrorism ◽  
Nuclear Security ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract. The article highlights the history of radiological weapons ban negotiations. In 1948, the United Nations Commission on Conventional Armaments identified radiological weapons as WMD. Since as early as the 1960s, some states have put forward proposals to ban radiological weapons at the international level as potentially threatening human lives and the environment. In 1977 to 1979, a treaty banning radiological weapons was approved on the basis of a draft developed at bilateral Soviet-American negotiations in Geneva, which could have become an important impetus for further actions in limiting the arms race. The careful preparation of the text of the future treaty by the USSR and US delegations raised expectations that its finalisation by the Disarmament Commission would not take much time. The reality, however, was far different. In December 1979, the Afghan war broke out. In response to the Soviet aggression against Afghanistan, the United States took a whole set of measures, including the refusal to continue bilateral talks on the prohibition of radiological weapons. The author notes that control over radioactive materials was strengthened at the national level, without waiting for an international legal definition of radiological weapons. Political ambitions of a number of countries have prevented the Conference on Disarmament from achieving positive results. The author emphasises that today nuclear terrorism is regarded by world leaders as an urgent global-scale security threat, as confirmed by the international Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C. in 2016, attended by delegations from over 50 countries. The author states that the issue of the radiological weapons prohibition remains pending. Keywords: radiological weapons, Conference on Disarmament, Ukrainian diplomatic history, USA, Geneva, USSR.

Stevens and the Operational Definition of Measurement in Psychology, 1935–1950

2018 ◽  
pp. 139-146
Author(s):  
Ivan Moscati
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Theory Of Measurement ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
Psychological Measurement ◽  
Utility Measurement ◽  
American Psychologist ◽  
Operational Theory ◽  
Scales Of Measurement ◽  
Definition Of

Chapter 8 broadens the narrative beyond utility measurement and discusses an important outcome of the 1930s British controversy over psychological measurement, namely the operational definition of measurement put forward by American psychologist Stanley Smith Stevens in 1946. For Stevens, measurement consists of the assignment of numbers to objects according to certain rules. Since there are various rules for assigning numbers to objects, there are various forms, or scales, of measurement. Each scale is identified by the empirical operations used to create it and by the class of mathematical transformations the numbers in each scale can be subjected to. From this operational viewpoint, unit-based measurement is just a particular, and quite restrictive, form of measurement. Stevens’s definition of measurement was broad enough to include the psychologists’ quantification practices as measurement and quickly became canonical in psychology. The final section of the chapter discusses drawbacks to Stevens’s operational theory of measurement.

scholarly journals The Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas

2012 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Antebellum America ◽  
Slave Resistance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Methodology ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Complicated Nature ◽  
Temporal Coverage

The Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas offers authoritative articles on the history and historiography of the institution of slavery in the New World. With articles on colonial and antebellum America, Brazil, the Caribbean, the Indies, and South America, this book has impressive geographic and temporal coverage. It also includes a generous range of thematic articles on comparative slavery, the economics of slavery, and historical methodology in the field, slavery, and the law, for instance. While obviously indebted to the foundational works of the 1960s and 1970s, current writing on the history of slavery and forms of un-free labour in the Americas has taken decidedly original, new, often ingenious turns. A younger generation of scholars has shown a healthy respect for that tradition while posing new, often interdisciplinary, and theoretically informed questions, considering, for example, the nature and definition of slave resistance in the Americas, evolving meanings of gender and race under slavery, the complicated nature of class formation in un-free societies, the elaboration of proslavery and antislavery ideologies, the origins and subsequent elaboration of race-based slavery, and mechanisms of emancipation.

The Expected Utility Theory and Measurement Theory of von Neumann and Morgenstern, 1944–1947

2018 ◽  
pp. 147-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Moscati
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Utility Function ◽  
Expected Utility ◽  
Utility Theory ◽  
Theory Of Measurement ◽  
Measurement Theory ◽  
Expected Utility Theory ◽  
Economic Behavior ◽  
Utility Analysis ◽  
Von Neumann

Chapter 9 discusses the axiomatic version of expected utility theory (EUT), a theory of decision-making under risk, put forward by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern in their book Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944). EUT was a changing factor in the history of utility measurement. In fact, while discussions of the measurability of utility before 1944 focused on the utility used to analyze decision-making between risk-free alternatives, after that year, discussions centered on the utility used to analyze decision-making between risky alternatives. In Theory of Games, the nature of the cardinal utility function u featured in von Neumann and Morgenstern’s EUT, and its relationship with the riskless utility function U of previous utility analysis remained ambiguous. Von Neumann and Morgenstern also put forward an axiomatic theory of measurement, which presents some similarities with Stanley Smith Stevens’s measurement theory but had no immediate impact on utility analysis.

Freedom of speech: A recent history of political t-shirts in the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Marie Akou
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Recent History ◽  
The Us ◽  
Campaign Activity ◽  
History Of ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Definition Of

Since their invention in the 1930s, t-shirts have become one of the most common styles of casual clothing in the United States ‐ worn by all ages, genders and social classes. Although ‘graphic’ t-shirts have existed for decades, twenty-first-century technologies have made them much faster and easier to produce. Students protesting the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s wore black armbands and grew their hair long; today, students (and activists of all ages) are more likely to wear political t-shirts. In a time when anyone with modest computer skills can design a graphic and get t-shirts professionally printed and shipped in just two or three days, this medium for self- and group-expression is well-suited to the turbulence of politics. This article explores the recent history of political t-shirts in the United States in two parts. The first focuses on legislation and legal rulings, including a case heard by the US Supreme Court in 2018 regarding whether activists can wear political t-shirts in polling places (a space where any kind of campaign activity is generally forbidden). The second part explores the definition of a ‘political’ t-shirt. This section is grounded in a study of t-shirts that are currently turning up in thrift shops in Bloomington, IN ‐ a small, politically active community in a conservative state that voted for Obama in 2008 and then Trump in 2016.

Essay Reviews - Charles Darwin: Imprimatur!

1990 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-131 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Modern Synthesis ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Ball Rolling ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Garland Publishing ◽  
Dominant Theory

Charles Darwin’s Beagle diary , ed. Richard Darwin Keynes. Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp. xxix + 464. £35. ISBN 0-521-23503-0. Charles Darwin’s notebooks, 1836-1844 ed. Paul H. Barrett et al . Cambridge University Press, 1987. Pp. viii + 747. £65. ISBN 0-521-35055-7. A calendar of the correspondence of Charles Darwin, 1821-1882 , ed. Frederick Burkhardt & Sydney Smith. New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1985. Pp. 690. £37.50. ISBN 0-521-35055-7. The correspondence of Charles Darwin , ed. Frederick Burkhardt & Sydney Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: Volume 1 (1821-1836), 1985. Pp. xxix + 702. £32.50. ISBN 0-521-25587-2; Volume 2 (1837-1843), 1986. Pp. xxv + 603. £32.50. ISBN 0-521-25588-0; Volume 3 (1844-1846), 1987. Pp. xxxii + 523. £32.50. ISBN 0-521-25589-9. Darwin scholars have long had access to a substantial body of his correspondence in print, thanks to the three-volume Life and letters and the two-volume More letters edited by his son Francis. Letters between Darwin and John Henslow were published by Nora Barlow, who also edited the Beagle notebooks and diary. A more intense interest in the discovery and publication of the theory of natural selection began in the 1960s, following the consolidation of the modern synthesis with genetics. In the early decades of this century Darwinism still had substantial rivals as a scientific theory. Darwin himself was perceived as the man who had ‘started the ball rolling’ in the establishment of scientific evolutionism, but not necessarily as the founder of the dominant theory of the evolutionary mechanism. But once the modern synthesis of Darwinism and genetics was firmly established, its proponents began to see the original creation of the selection theory as the main event in the history of evolutionism. Sir Gavin De Beer and Sydney Smith began a renewed effort to collect and publish Darwin’s private papers. Historians of science were encouraged to investigate the treasure-trove that began to accumulate at Cambridge University Library. The books reviewed here represent the latest thrust toward the publication of Darwin material, a thrust that may well end with virtually everything that survives being available on the library shelf.

Epistemology of Measurement: The Relevance of its History for Quantification in the Social Sciences

2003 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Michell
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Measurement Theory ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Qualitative Change ◽  
Conjoint Measurement ◽  
Psychological Attributes ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of

Five episodes in the history of quantitative science provided the occasions for changes in the understanding of measurement important for attempts at quantification in the social sciences. First, Euclid's generalization of the ancient concept of measure to the concept of ratio provided a clear rationale for the use of numbers in quantitative science, a rationale that has been important through the history of science and one that contradicts the definition of measurement currently fashionable within the social sciences. Second, Duns Scotus's modelling of qualitative change upon quantitative change provided the opportunity to extend measurement from extensive to intensive attributes, a shift that makes it clear that the possibility of measuring qualitative attributes in the social sciences is not one that can be ruled out a priori. Third, Hölder's specification of the character of quantitative attributes showed that quantitative structure is a specific kind of empirical structure, one that is not logically necessary and, therefore, it shows that it is not necessary that any psychological attributes must be quantitative either. Taking the points emanating from Duns Scotus and Hölder together, the issue of whether psychological attributes are quantitative is shown to be an empirical issue. Fourth, Campbell's delineation of the categories of fundamental and derived measurement, and his subsequent critique of psychophysical measurement, showed that attempts at psychological measurement raised new challenges for measurement theory. Fifth, the articulation of the theory of conjoint measurement by Luce and Tukey reveals one way in which those challenges might be met. Taken as a whole, these episodes show that attempts at measurement in the social sciences are continuous with the rest of science in the sense that the issue of whether social science attributes can be measured raises empirical questions that can be answered only in the light of scientific evidence.

scholarly journals Implications Of The Homomorphism Definition Of Measurement On Accounting Measurement Theory

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saratiel Wedzerai Musvoto
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Measurement ◽  
Measurement Theory ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Accounting Measurement ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Measurement Concept ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Measurement Practices

This study compares the principles of the representational theory of measurement with accounting practices to decipher the reasons creating a gap between accounting measurement practices and the scientific practices of measurement. Representational measurement establishes measurement in social scientific disciplines such as accounting. The discussion in this study focuses on the need for accounting to provide principled arguments to justify its status as a measurement discipline. The arguments made highlight the need for possible modifications of the accounting measurement concept to deal with issues that are at least partially philosophical in nature, such as the concept of error and the passing of value representations from finite to continuum. These problems are primarily conceptual in nature. They indicate that accounting is far from a measurement discipline. Their resolution could require major changes to the accounting concept of measurement.

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