instead to the meaning or effect or transcendence of something.27 Therefore, the sense and the scope are, in my understanding, more directly related to the cognoscente subject than to the cognoscible object. As such, for their determination emphasis falls on human reason, that is, on the exercise of reason and persuasion. 47. In an international human rights court, such as this Court, reason and persuasion, in my understanding, necessarily prevail over the production (of judgments). Reason and persuasion are imposed per se, and cannot be captured by statistical data. What the latter does not reveal is the time and effort of an international tribunal, such as the Inter-American Court, dedicated to their task of reasoning and persuading, in order to substantiate their decisions and make justice. 48. For example, the famous case of Bámaca Velásquez versus Guatemala (Judgments on merits, 11.25.2000, and of reparations, 02.22.2002), had four public hearings before this Court (on merits and reparations), which implied eight days of hearing.28 Between 1987 and 2002, eleven cases had three public hearings each, on preliminary objections, merits, and reparations (Velásquez Rodríguez versus Honduras, Godínez Cruz versus Honduras, Neira Alegría et al. versus Perú, Caballero Delgado and Santana versus Colombia, Loayza Tamayo versus Peru, Castillo Páez versus Peru, Paniagua Morales et al. versus Guatemala, Cesti Hurtado versus Peru, Cantoral Benavides versus Peru, Durand and Ugarte versus Peru, and Las Palmeras versus Colombia). 49. The two last cases that in which two hearings were held in each one were those of Cantos versus Argentina (Judgment of 11.28.2002) and 19 Tradesmen versus Colombia (Judgment of 07.05.2004). The proceedings of Interpretation of the Judgment do not necessarily exclude the holding of public hearings: for example, v.g., the Judgment of Interpretation in the case of Cesti Hurtado versus Peru, which was duly preceded by a public hearing (on 01.25.2001). 50. There seems to be statistics for everything, except for reason and persuasion. From 1990 and until the end of 2006, the Inter-American Court had issued 19 Judgments of Interpretation; of this total, nine Judgments of Interpretation were issued only in the two-year period of 2005-2006. The total of requests for interpretation of Judgments seems to have accompanied the decrease of the total of public hearings before the Court. In short, I allow myself to insist that there seems to be statistical graphs for everything except for reason and persuasion. Statistical graphs do not impress me at all; I have a real aversion for them. 51. And in this I enjoy good company. The historian Arnold J. Toynbee, known for his profound erudition, has criticized, for more than three years, the “statistical approach” and the “quantification” that were going on to dominate in the contemporary world and that, in his opinion, have a very limited value in “human affairs". For him, "the permanent and regular element in human affairs is human nature, - the whole psychosomatic unity of a human being."29 He confessed that, in the final part of his monumental A Study of History, he experienced . Cf. Real Academia Española, Diccionario de la Lengua Española, op. cit. supra n. (26), p. 87. 27 . June 16, 17, and 18, 1998; October 15, 1998; November 22 and 23, 1998; and November 28 and 29, 2001. 28 . 29 Toynbee on Toynbee, Oxford, University Press, 1974, pp. 26-27.