Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

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Objectivity and Social Science
w. T. COUCH
The thesis of this paper is that the idea widely prevailing
among social scientists that the social scientist knows how to
proceed impartially, that he knows how to counteract or get rid
of bias in his work, is an illusion.
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The problem of impartiality, as everyone knows who has concerned
himself seriously with the idea, is a part of the problem
of objectivity. Objectivity, it might seem, has to do with objects.
But the term "object" has been applied to everything from the universe,
and the stars and chairs and dogs and mathematics and logic
that are in it, to the completely private and wholly subjective
notions of individual persons. Everything that has existed, whether
its existence has been private or public, has constituted an object
if existence is taken as the definition of objectivity. But this definition
is obviously unsatisfactory. It leaves no room for distinguishing
between objectivity and subjectivity. Now, if we
persist with sufficient zeal in the effort to get a satisfactory definition,
we shall discover that we are not the first to have this
interest. Plato had it. And Aristotle. And St. Augustine and
Thomas Aquinas and Descartes and Locke and Hume and Kant
and Hegel and Kierkegaard and a host of others.
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