Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

7
Scientism in the Writing
of History
PIETER GEYL
When I was invited to take part in the Symposium on Scientism
and the Study of Man, I happened to be preparing the valedictory
oration I was to deliver on the occasion of my retirement
as Professor of Modern History in the University of Utrecht. The
organizers were good enough to allow me to use that paper as my
contribution to the symposium but, although it gave rise to an
animated, and to me enlightening, discussion, I had felt all along
that it was not really very closely related to the central theme of
the symposium.
What I spoke about to my audience in the Aula of Utrecht
University on May 31, 1958, was "The Vitality of Western Civilization."
I used an occasion which was bound to attract attention
to speak my mind on a matter that had for a long time irritated
me and that I consider to be a danger to our Western community,
viz., the irresponsible depreciation of our civilization, the wallowing
in visions of decay, the belief that a new world was beginning,
or had begun, in which we should take our tune, if not from the
Russians, then from the Asiatics or the Africans·.
That oration of mine 1 should not be interpreted as a hymn of
pr.aise to the times we live in; it was not meant as such. Nor did
I want to extol Western civilization as the salt of the earth or to
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