Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

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Science and the Studies of Man
ELISEO VIVAS
I
These notes intend to show that the disciplines fashionably
called at present "the behavioral sciences" are not scientific in the
sense that the physical and the biological sciences are scientific. It
is in the latter sense, in the sense we employ it in speaking of the
exact, the natural sciences, that I shall use the term "science." The
so-called behavioral sciences I shall refer to as the disciplines or
studies of man. It is a pity that we cannot call them collectively
"anthropology," thus providing ourselves with a much needed
term to refer to all the disciplines whose subject matter is anthropos
and the institutions that actualize and secure his values.!
But since I do not hold that the only valid knowledge is the
scientific, but believe that there is philosophical knowledge of a
substantive nature and that there is moral and religious knowledge
and, in a qualified sense, even aesthetic knowledge, it is not my
intention to disparage the studies of man. These disciplines attain
truth of their kind and have worth irrespective of whether or not
they employ the methods of the sciences.
Although in view of the Zeitgeist it would be naive to expect
the differences between the studies of man and the sciences to be
acknowledged, nevertheless it is important to be clear about them
because the studies of man, when they are thought of as scientific,
tend to develop a number of objectionable symptoms. Their lan-
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