The Vision Thing

Hi, I’m John Patty. I own and am planning to write this blog.

I set this up to offer my own take on “the math” behind questions of the day.  Nothing fancy—just some facts along with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

My goal here (unless I state otherwise, which I believe will be rare) is not to argue what the “right policy” is.  Indeed, I intend to focus on the reality that, in many cases, there isn’t an unambiguous “best choice.”  Rather, I want to provide (sourced) facts about the policies under discussion and, hopefully, provide some clarity on what the different options actually mean.

I promise I will make mistakes.  I also promise to try and make them as apparent as possible to those of you who doubt the claim(s) in question.  I’d rather be shown to be wrong about facts than to listen to shouting matches between people slinging “fact-like” assertions at each other.

4 thoughts on “The Vision Thing”

  1. Hi John!
    Thought you and your readers would like to know about this:

    Quantitative Answer for Qualitative Question, What is a good political system?

    Using Formal Axiology and the definition of David Easton’s concept of a political system, political scientists can now empirically assess the goodness of any political system in the world. With Formal Axiology’s Value Calculus, comparative political systems, public policies, and public laws can be rated with math-like clarity. Learn how at,
    Formal Axiology and the Philosophy of Social Science; esp., Political Science
    http://www.academia.edu/4800305/Formal_Axiology_and_the_Philosophy_of_Social_Science_esp._Political_Science

    Read it, and lets talk!

    William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.

    PS
    The old Fact/Value divide is bridged!

    Reply ↓

    • Thanks for the comment, William. I encourage you to take a look at the works of Kenneth Arrow and Amartya Sen regarding the possibility of defining a “best” political system.

      Reply ↓

  2. Thanks for the leads. Of course it’ll take a while to check them out. Since you are a math person, I was hoping to get your opinion about the Value Calculus I talk about in the first few pages of the paper I link to above. Its not my own creation, but from philosopher of science RS Hartman. I apply it to political science.

    Reply ↓

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