Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Fiduciary Responsibility and Improbability Principle 101
reversal of a number of the canons of social science in consequence
of the value commitments of the scientist, which threatens
potential or actual loss of confidence by social scientists in their
own work. But more importantly, this reversal threatens loss of
public confidence that fiduciary responsibility is being honored.
1. The Value Commitments
The discovery of value commitments which interfere with
expressions of science requires neither unusual insight nor extensive
examination of the literature. P.articularistic espousals are
stated directly and clearly in the public pronouncements of some
officers of national professional organizations and in some committees
authorized to represent officially the organized membership
of the behavioral science fields involved. Basic agreement on
value positions and on programs of related actions are stated
directly or are clearly implied in papers presented to professional
meetings, sometimes published later, and in journals as reviewers
address a congenial audience. These values and goals of action
seem to be assumed to be so pervasive, so standardized, so monolithic,
that reviewers approach the point of saying, "Of course,
we all oppose (or support) this sort of thing." 3
But nowhere are the commitments of supposed "value-free"
behavioral scientists better expressed than in the platforms. of
some of the affiliates of national professional societies. The affiliates
typically form an independent organization, dedicated to
one or several programs of action, and establish a journal. The
next step is for the group to petition for legitimacy, that is, for
affiliation with the general-and relatively respected-national
organization of their profession. This affiliation, if established,
both legitimizes the "action" or value-oriented group and adds to
its actions the apparent backing of the larger organization.
An analogous procedure wou ld involve the organization of
Catholic sociologists who are members of the American Sociological
Association into a Society for. the Propagation of the Faith.
The members of the new society would then petition for affiliation
with the American Sociological Association-and, as members of