Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

The Psychopathology of Scientism 211
models and consequent over-all laws are borne in mind, and so
long as practically they are not used as a tool to make human
community into a "society of beavers or bees."
3. Even if the organismic analogy were accepted, Spengler's assumption
of a rigid life-span and timetable of cultural development
cannot be maintained; even legitimate organisms, animals
and plants, of the same species vary greatly in this respect. Toynbee
has justly abandoned this Spenglerian assumption. The frills
of T'oynbee's doctrine, such as the theory of challenge and response
and his eschatological views., are hardly less gratuitous (and
much less dramatic) than Spengler's metaphysical romanticism.
4. Spengler'S contention that cultures are "organisms" unconnected
with each other is patently incorrect. The survival and inheritance
by newer cultures of what has been achieved in the past
is obvious. Our Western civilization, in particular, patently differs
from previous ones in its global character as compared to the
geographic limitations of the former.
These basic objections as well as factual criticism in detail have
to be taken for granted. However, the criterion of verification of
any model in science is whether predictions derived from it are
confirmed by experience. Irrespective of the defects of Spengler'S
method and model, many derivations from it appear to be disquietingly
correct. This does not imply a predestined doom, but
rather a warning signal; much in the same way as, with respect to
a human individual, the life-span is not predestined, and illness
terminating it may be controlled by timely diagnosis and therapeutic
measures.
Spengler's "Decline" stems, of course, from Nietzsche's concept
of nihilis;m, that is, the devaluation of traditional values. Spengler
himself described the phenomenon as a Time of Trouble, internecine
wars, dictatorships, formation of an uprooted fellaheen
society, and progressing statism. Toynbee 21 similarly speaks of a
Time of Troubles and redoubtable Universal States. Ortega y
Gasset 22 calls the same phenomenon "the Uprise of the Masses,"
emphasizing demographic pressure as its cause. David Riesman 23
speaks of the "other-directed crowd" of our time compared to the
"inner-directedness" of other periods. W. H. Whyte 24 describes