论文标题
数据理念
A Philosophy of Data
论文作者
论文摘要
我们认为，尽管关于数据伦理的这种论述至关重要，但它缺少一个基本观点：如果在商业，政府，科学和我们的日常生活中越来越多的努力是数据驱动的，我们应该更加关注确切的驱动。因此，我们需要关于哪些基本属性构成数据的更多争论。在本文的第一部分中，我们从统计计算所需的基本属性到统计数据的定义。我们将统计数据定义为实体和数值属性的汇聚，并区分定性和定量数据。随后，我们通过争辩说，使数据实际上有用，以揭示有意义的差异，可以通过统计方法来产生相关的见解，从而使我们的定义有资格。在第二部分中，我们专注于我们的数据概念可以促进有关数据伦理及其他问题的论述。首先，我们认为需要有用的数据可以归功于有用的数据，这是对属性的理解，从根本上是唯一的或平等的。其次，我们认为实际问题使我们越来越标准化我们如何运营实质性财产。换句话说，我们如何形式化数据的实质和数值属性之间的关系。因此，我们还标准化了对财产的解释。随着我们对数据和数据技术的日益依赖，数据的这两个特征影响了我们的集体现实概念。统计数据从根本上排除了从根本上独特和同等的影响我们对世界的看法，并且可以将实质性特性的标准化视为深刻的本体论实践，从而使对我们日常生活中现象的普遍解释更加普遍。
We argue that while this discourse on data ethics is of critical importance, it is missing one fundamental point: If more and more efforts in business, government, science, and our daily lives are data-driven, we should pay more attention to what exactly we are driven by. Therefore, we need more debate on what fundamental properties constitute data. In the first section of the paper, we work from the fundamental properties necessary for statistical computation to a definition of statistical data. We define a statistical datum as the coming together of substantive and numerical properties and differentiate between qualitative and quantitative data. Subsequently, we qualify our definition by arguing that for data to be practically useful, it needs to be commensurable in a manner that reveals meaningful differences that allow for the generation of relevant insights through statistical methodologies. In the second section, we focus on what our conception of data can contribute to the discourse on data ethics and beyond. First, we hold that the need for useful data to be commensurable rules out an understanding of properties as fundamentally unique or equal. Second, we argue that practical concerns lead us to increasingly standardize how we operationalize a substantive property; in other words, how we formalize the relationship between the substantive and numerical properties of data. Thereby, we also standardize the interpretation of a property. With our increasing reliance on data and data technologies, these two characteristics of data affect our collective conception of reality. Statistical data's exclusion of the fundamentally unique and equal influences our perspective on the world, and the standardization of substantive properties can be viewed as profound ontological practice, entrenching ever more pervasive interpretations of phenomena in our everyday lives.
