Porter, T.M. (1995) Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Theodore M. Porter defines quantification as a technology of trust that allows science, administration, and public life to operate across distance. Numbers, graphs, formulas, standards, and explicit rules create an impersonal language through which decisions appear fair, transportable, and independent of personal judgement. Porter’s central concept, mechanical objectivity, describes this reliance on procedures that restrain discretion and reduce suspicion: the authority of numbers grows precisely where trust in individuals, experts, or institutions becomes fragile. His argument develops through the relation between science, bureaucracy, and public legitimacy. In contexts of conflict or institutional vulnerability, numerical methods make decisions defensible because they seem to follow rules rather than interests. A clear case appears in cost-benefit analysis, accounting, actuarial calculation, and public administration, where officials use quantitative criteria to justify choices before distant publics and critical outsiders. The table of contents reinforces this architecture: Porter moves from “Power in Numbers” to “Technologies of Trust” and finally to “Political and Scientific Communities”, showing that objectivity is social, moral, and institutional as well as epistemic. Quantification therefore functions as a disciplined form of communication: it standardises judgement, travels beyond local knowledge, and makes authority appear neutral. Porter’s contribution lies in showing that modern societies trust numbers because numbers promise impartiality where personal authority has become contestable.