We Should not Align Quantitative Measures with Stakeholder Values

Abstract There is a growing consensus among philosophers that quantifying value-laden concepts can be epistemically successful and politically legitimate if all value-laden choices in the process of quantification are aligned with stakeholder values. I argue that proponents of this alignment approach have failed to argue for its basic premise: Successful quantification is sufficiently unconstrained to be achievable along multiple, stakeholder-specific pathways. I then challenge this premise by considering a rare example of successful value-laden quantification in seismology, in which stakeholder values had to be disregarded from measure design and testing. The example motivates my contention that value alignment is not a workable source of political legitimacy for successful programs of quantification.