Separating facts from values
I wrote about the importance of distinguishing facts from values in Chapter 19 of Turning Numbers into Knowledge, and I wanted to summarize that point here, because it is so often forgotten in discussions of technical issues.
Every human choice embodies certain values. When technical people advocate a technology choice (e.g., whether or not to build more nuclear power plants) they often portray their advice as totally rational, completely objective, and value free. This portrayal cannot be correct—if an analyst makes a choice, he has also made a value judgment.
One purpose of analysis is to support public or private choices; in this context, it cannot be value-free. It can, however, illuminate the consequences of choices so that the people and institutions making them can evaluate the alternative outcomes, using both their values and the analysts’ best estimates of the consequences for each choice.
