Implicit presuppositions: an exercise in multidimensional scaling and hierarchical clustering

This working paper, like Humanities Working Papers 66 and 75, of which it is a further development, has two main aims. The first of these is to resolve a particular problem in art history. For this purpose the data already studied in Working Papers 66 and 75 are reanalyzed by means of multidimensional scaling and hierarchical clustering procedures, with results that support our earlier conclusion that sixteenth century Mannerism is best understood as an exaggeration of the High Renaissance style rather than as a distinct school. Our second aim, which in this paper takes precedence over the first, is to demonstrate to humanists that the quantitative methods of the social sciences can be used effectively to deal with some of the problems with which humanists are characteristically concerned, by replacing unresolved difference of opinion by judgments based on public procedures. Though this is a joint paper, the text is chiefly the responsibility of a psychologist and an anthropologist; the explanatory comments and Discussion section are chiefly the responsibility of a philosopher. Thus the authorship of the paper reflects the kind of cooperation between social scientists and humanists that we are recommending.