Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

216 Scientism and Values
maintained by doping. This is largely borne out by this period's
subsistence on tranquilizers and allied psychotropic drugs. 38
It is worthwhile to note that the error of scientism was committed
by the positivists from Bacon to Comte to our time, but
was not shared by the founders of pragmatism. William James'
Varieties of Religious Experience is an everlasting document in
this, respect.
Scientism did not recognize, and helped actively to suppress, an
enormous and all-important part of human experience. Thus, it
made "Organization Man" into a society of "beavers and bees." 39
This is a consequence of the fact that scientism cannot provide a
basis for the uniqueness of human individuality and values. In
a reappraisal of the latter will be the clue to the future.
NOTES
I. F. A. Hayek, The Counter-Revolution of Science (Glencoe: Free Press,
1952), pp. 14 and 123.
2. L. von Bertalanffy, "Philosophy of Science in Scientific Education,"
Scientific Monthly, LXXVII (1953), 233-239.
3. L. von Bertalanffy, "An Essay on the Relativity of Categories," Philosophy
of Science, XXII (1953), 243-263.
4. Hayek, Ope cit.
5. The present paper was prepared before reading A. Huxley's Brave New
World Revisited (New York: Harper, 1958), where many similar reflections
can be found.
6. Hayek, Ope cit., p. 108.
7. Ibid., p. 97.
8. A. Huxley, Brave New World (New York: Harper, 1932).
9. H. O. Packard, The Hidden Persuaders (New York: McKay, 1957).
10. Hayek, Ope cit., p. 96.
II. Ibid., pp. 109 f.
12. Ibid., pp. 94 ff.
13. Since documentation of this point was desired, the writer refers to a
discussion in Time magazine (March 24, 1958).
14. Cf. T. J. (editorial), "Two Heads Better Than One?" Science, CXXVII
(1958), 933.
15. Cf. P. I. Lazarsfeld and W. Thielens, Jr., The Academic Mind: Social
Scientists in a Time of Crisis (1959).
16. E. H. Ackerknecht, RudolPh Virchow, Doctor, Statesman, Anthropologist
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1953).
17. D. W. Bronk, "The Climate for Basic Research" (Presentation at Symposium:
The Structure of Science, Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, April
17-18, 1959).