Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Scientism in the Writing of History 153
but perhaps a disproportionate, place? A balance has to be struck
between these and many other aspects of history, that is to say, between
the records of human activities in so many countries and in many
ages, that are so scrappy, or again so full, so dissimilar, and mutually
impossible to equate. The question imposes itself: Can anybody, in
attempting this, claim that he is guided by the sure methods of science?
Can he embrace with his mind the whole of that immense chaos
and derive from it a conclusion which would be evident to every other
human intellect, as would a proposition in Euclid?
I doubt it, or rather-I deny it.
Statistics are not often used by historians, as is done by Professor
Sorokin, to support large theories about the world's future (a
very dark one, in his view). But statistics are much in vogue with
writers of social history nowadays, who believe that with their aid
they can get away from the controversial problems raised by ideological
differences and achieve objectivity. Now I am not arguing
against statistics, nor am I, in a more general sense, contending
that the methods of science can never be of any use in the study
of man. What I am tilting at is the undue application of such
methods, which is what I ,understand is meant by scientism. Statistics
can be useful to the historian. To think, however, that by
their me.ans one can avoid ideological issues and make a short cut
to objectivity seems to me a dangerous illusion. History can in
that way only be devitalized. The historian should be very careful
not to be imposed upon by the scientific appearance of an array of
figures and of elaborate calculations based upon them, as if the
re.ality of the past must now let itself be captured without fail. A
striking instance· of the deceptiveness of statistics in history was
discussed by Professor Hexter in an essay on the great Tawney­
Trevor Roper controversy about the gentry which appeared in last
year's Encounter.
Toynbee, in his Study of History) does not deal in statistics so
much, but occasionally he prints, to illustrate his argument, tables
which are similarly intended to set upon it the mark of scientific
precision and order. "It looks beautifully 'simple,' " was my comment
on one such table in Volume IX.ll "I shall say no more than