[lbo-talk] What are you reading now?

[Eubulides]

Tayssir John Gabbour wrote:
> On 9/12/07, John Adams <jadams01 at sprynet.com> wrote:
>   
>> Beautiful Evidence, by Edward Tufte (again, not assigned for class, but
>> on topic and pure genius)
>>     
>
> I like Tufte's ethical economics, right in the beginning of the book:
>
>     "Making an evidence presentation is a moral act as well as an
>     intellectual activity. To maintain standards of quality, relevance
>     and integrity for evidence, consumers of presentations should
>     insist that presenters be held intellectually and ethically
>     responsible for what they show and tell. Thus /consuming/ a
>     presentation is also an intellectual and a moral activity."
>   
======================

Well, does Tufte present any evidence that presentation of evidence is a 
moral act? How does he avoid circularity in his claim? I don't 
understand how questioning what he's asserting has anything to with 
so-called morality.


> This was in the economic context of "producer and consumer" of evidence.
>   
==================

A silly way of looking at evidence. To say one consumes a 
work/presentation of algebra or biochemistry or political economy is 
incoherent.