This is such a horrible article. Many have already mentioned the conflation of humanities and social sciences. Then by using the example of books (because most would agree books would loose their essence if we just describe them by numbers) it constructs a straw man that somehow we loose something (the beauty?) by using quantitative measures.
Sure many studies have flaws (not just in the social sciences), but what is the alternative that we simply use theories because of their "beauty" (whatever that means)? Shall we start psychological therapies just because someone thought it sounded good, instead of measuring if it works?
Sure many studies have flaws (not just in the social sciences), but what is the alternative that we simply use theories because of their "beauty" (whatever that means)? Shall we start psychological therapies just because someone thought it sounded good, instead of measuring if it works?