The ethics of stats: some contemporary questions about telling the truth
This essay argues for the importance and interest, within and beyond theological ethics, of the ethical questions faced by professionals who are called on to be producers of statistics (herein “stats”) for management purposes. Truth-telling, in the context of demands for stats, cannot be evaluated a...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic/Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley
[2014]
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| In: |
Journal of religious ethics
Year: 2014, Volume: 42, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-21 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Statistics
/ Truth
/ Theological ethics
B Bonhoeffer, Dietrich 1906-1945 / Foucault, Michel 1926-1984 / Truth |
| RelBib Classification: | NCA Ethics NCC Social ethics VA Philosophy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This essay argues for the importance and interest, within and beyond theological ethics, of the ethical questions faced by professionals who are called on to be producers of statistics (herein “stats”) for management purposes. Truth-telling, in the context of demands for stats, cannot be evaluated at the level of the individual statement or utterance, nor through an ethical framework primarily focused on the correspondence between thought and speech. Reflection on stats production forces us to treat truth-telling as contextual and political, and to engage with the idea that the capacity to tell the truth is learned or acquired in communities, societies and institutions. I develop this engagement through a rereading of Dietrich Bonhoeffer on “telling the truth” and Michel Foucault on parrhēsia, identifying and exploring the relationship between the responsible use of stats and the “cynical” protest against them. |
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| ISSN: | 0384-9694 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religious ethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/jore.12042 |