Purpose

Although the modern trend of analysis in areas such as the social sciences is to favor those problems and techniques that can be expressed and explored through the use of numerical representation, it is still readily apparent that many of the important issues of our day involve phenomena exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to measure. Examples abound. Human behavior would seem to involve a complex of interrelated, nonquantifiable elements. Economic (e.g., labor-management) and diplomatic-political bargaining illustrate the point. At times the significance of numerical information pales in comparison to the many hard-to-scale political, social, and psychological pressures under which negotiators operate. And the outcome is likely to depend further on the personalities involved. In another context, nonquantifiability turns up in many “resistances” to economic development (e.g., cultural patterns) that have been discovered in so-called underdeveloped countries. Kuznets has also suggested that there are institutional and structural changes (urbanization, etc.) accompanying growth that are equally tough to gauge. It follows that purely quantitative analyses of economic development are of limited usefulness because important inputs and outputs of the growth process cannot, at present, be calibrated. Recent concern and interest in the “quality of life” also runs into a similar barrier. Attempts to measure it (see, e.g., Liu and Ontell) have not yet and may never be able to capture its essence fully. Hence the concept itself cannot be defined and understood solely in numerical terms.