Numerical qualifiers #1

Garrett Hardin warns us against what he calls cognitive innumeracy. He doesn’t mean so much that our arithmetic and statistical tools are decrepit.  Rather, he warns us against not including numbers when numbers are absolutely required to make sense out of an argument.  In other words, some arguments imply magnitude, proportion, and size relationships, but the person making the argument or processing it does not seem to appreciate the need for the numbers.

In simple instances of innumeracy there is a claim that X is greater than Y with no reference to whether the difference is tiny or gargantuan.  Either through inability or guile, the author of the argument and the recipient form a partnership of innumeracy, one rife with manipulative potential.

Critical thinking requires constant vigilance for instances where numbers are almost everything in terms of the quality of the argument, but the person making the argument either withholds or does not realize the significance of the numbers.