Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

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106 Scientism and Values rewards as if some people were unequal. It has also become increasingly clear that the system of Communism also cannot be trusted, since it also rewards (not to say punishes) people as if they were unequal. I6 Almost inevitably, but certainly factually, the usurpation of the function of creator produces. a consistenly negative attitude toward organized religion, which has for millennia offered its own conception of a Creator. I7 2. T he Rejection of Concepts Concepts in social science gain and retain their place primarily through their varied functions in distinguishing, invoking, and predicting properties extracted from reality which are relevant to the particular science concerned. IS Discarding concepts which have significant predictive and discriminating value because of emotional pain is hardly congruent with the public avowals of science. The following discussion will present the possibility that the equalitarian position is so strong that important concepts have withered if they stood in the way. The chief identified inequality under active consideration by social scientists at present in the United States is the inequality of so-called minority groups. The term itself suggests persecution and is primarily open to argument, since the people so identified include such majorities as Catholics in Boston, Jews in parts of New York City, and Negroes in southern Mississippi. And technically, they are not groups, but categories. However that may be, within the minority category, the inequalities between the Caucasian and Negroid races attract most attention and continuing efforts to reduce inequality. As a social movement, this has much to commend it. As science, it is scientism. This effort has led its exponents to seek the abolition of a significant concept from the language of social and physical science. The concept of race is significant for psychology if it is useful, ultimately, in predicting the emergence of properties (behavior) in which the psychologist is interested. It is a valid concept for sociology if through its use significant social or socio-
Fiduciary Responsibility and Improbability Principle 107 logical phenomena may be clarified, identified, or predicted. The same can be said for other sciences, such as biology, anatomy, or physical anthropology.I8 This is not to say that the specific word is crucial. The concept may be identified as "tepic," or NMC 2 , or by any others of an almost limitless range of symbols. The point under consideration is the nature of the concept, not the symbol. A. L. Kroeber, perhaps the "dean" of living anthropologists, has written, "A race is a valid biological concept. It is a group united by heredity: a breed or genetic strain or subspecies ... Physical anthropology, being concerned with man's organic features, is properly and necessarily concerned with the human races." 19 This statement is supported by anatomists, who can cite hundreds of structural differences between physical types. classified by the concept of race, by physicians who accept patients from more than one race, and by a variety of researchers in other fields. A fairly early effort to discredit the concept was that of anthropologist Ashley Montagu, in the publication of Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race. 19a A more recent example is the somewhat testy correction by biologist Bentley Glass of a quotation in Saturday Review ascribed to Glass, and stating that differences in intelligence between races of men do exist. Glass had said ((may exist, but we have no way of knowing." Professor Glass does not even believe in intelligence tests, apparently, but he certainly does not believe in race.20 One of the most direct admissions of the impact of values on concepts, and even on the concealment of findings causing emotional anguish, came out of extended discussions of the "Statement of Human Rights," 21 published by the American Anthropological Association during the immediate post-World War II period. For present purposes it is well to begin with a communication from anthropologist John W. Bennett, in reply to previous comments by Julian Steward and H. G. Barnett. Barnett and Steward, said Bennett, were incomplete and unrealistic. The arguments of Julian Steward and H. G. Barnett in their inter.. esting critiques of the Statement on Human Rights, published under
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Scientism and Values
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Freedom School Library Scientism an
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Contributors LUDWIG VON BERTALANFFY
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Introduction HELMUT SCHOECK "Scient
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Introduction xi conventionally asso
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Introduction xiii sometimes pejorat
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Introduction xv signs of scientism
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1 Social Science and the Problenl o
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4 Scientism and Jlalues large in th
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16 Scientism and Values One additio
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20 Scientism and Values standing of
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24 Scientism and Values The status
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Objectivity and Social Science 27 T
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34 Scientism and Values III Let us
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Objectivity and Social Science 41 J
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46 Scientism and Values support of
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48 Scientism and Values 10. From th
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3 Science and the Studies of Man EL
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52 Scientism and Values question. I
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54 Scientism and Values out fear of
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The Mantle' of Science 175 arbitrar
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178 Scientism and Values 9. See F.
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9 Growth, in Biology and in Educati
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Growth} in Biology and, in Educatio
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Growth} in Biology and in Education
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Growth) in Biology and in Education
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194 Scientism and Values This absen
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10 The Psychopathology of Scientism
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206 Scientism and Values In the ear
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The Psychopathology of Scientism 21
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T he Psychopathology of Scientism 2
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T he Psychopathology of Scientism 2
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Social Science Versus the 0 bsessio
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Social Science Versus the Obsession
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12 Social Science As Autonomous Act
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238 Scientism and Values pretation
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240 Scientism and Values dore M. Ne
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Social Science As A utonomous Activ
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246 Scientism and Values testable i
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248 Scientism and Values applicatio
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250 Scientism and Values v Before o
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252 Scientism and J1alues ances. Th
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ACKERKNECHT, E. H., 216 Adler, Fran
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264 Tocqueville, Alexis de, 256 Tol
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historical process, 146 f. historic
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science (Cont.) levelling in, 208 o
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