Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

16 Scientism and Values
One additional point must be considered, however, before we
return to the problem of value as an explanatory category in the
social sciences. There are two levels of value clusters which are of
particular significance for us. One is the cluster of felt and
ascribed values associated with man's affiliative needs; the other
is the cluster of felt and ascribed values associated with the sense
of fulfillment. The former encompasses the whole range of values
pertaining to "communal" relations of individuals in actual
societies. The latter consists of the ideal projections of self and
community "images," constituting patterns of culture which include
most, if not all, of the other value clusters. That the transition
between the two levels is fluid is obvious. Nevertheless,
only the latter is the projection, of some ideal of a "cultured
humanity," infusing the rest of man's valuations with their ultimate
significance and with their relative importance. The degree
of harmony (or disharmony) between the actualities of .any given
society, on the one hand, and the' valuations inherent in its ideal
projections, on the other, is in itself of greatest significance for
an understanding of that society. The United Nations, in ideal
conception and actual functioning, is but one obvious illustration
of what I me.an.
VII
To some students of human behavior, in all its complexity,
the institution is the real isolate of culture. And if this is so,
then the valuations and value ascriptions embodied in institutions
are the key to a real understanding of man's communal living
and to the cultural pattern which dominates it.
A "community" or "society," so I have said earlier, is possible
only because, explicitly or implicitly, its members accept certain
value commitments as binding for them. Mere spatial togetherness
is not sufficient. Persistent value commitments are foundational
to, and more or less clearly defined in, all institutions; and in and
through its institutions a society is structuralized-the structure
reflecting a "hierarchy" of valuations. That there are "overlappings"
of institutions merely confirms the fact that things and