[MD] Quality decline

[craigerb at comcast.net]

[ian]> Marx was voted the greatest philosopher by a BBC "In Our Time" survey last year
Unless one knows exactly how the survey was conducted, this kind of data isworthless.  Leave aside how representative or how knowledgeable the sampling was.Generally how these surveys work is that either (a) there is a list to choose fromor (b) the respondent can respond with any name they choose.  [Case (a) is just asubset of case (b).]  Assume case (a) with a list of 19 philosophers.18 philosophers can get 5% of the vote each & Marx can get 10%,if so Marx wins the survey.  But what if the same people are asked "Who is theworst philosopher of our time?"  Marx gets 90% & 10% is distributed among the18.  So the result of the survey is:  18 philosophers get 5% vote for best &1/2 % for worst, while Marx gets 10% for best & 90% for worst.  There's nolonger any reason to think Marx is the best philosopher.Craig