The fact/value dichotomy does not exist, not even in law department management

Willard Quine, a mid-20th century philosopher at Harvard, drove the nail into the coffin of the notion that facts are neutral. Facts about law departments don’t exist, objective and unarguable. Instead, most philosophers and cognitive researchers now accept that we cannot separate what we call “facts” from some application of “value.”

For example, we can try to fool ourselves that the number of lawyers in a law department has a positivistic certainty. At some levels, without doubt it does, such as payroll.

But why we choose to count lawyers as more important – why we “privilege” that role, in the parlance of social scientists – rests on a value judgment.