Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

54 Scientism and Values
out fear of contradiction, is that Dr. Monroe's amiable modesty is
not false, for all she succeeded in doing was to make the attempt
at integration. We have not yet heard that as the result of her attempt
Freudians and Jungians. have united with Adlerians and
with the followers of Rank and of Sullivan and of Horney and of
Fromm and the other schools in a grand ecum.enical fellowship of
integrated love and intellectual cooperation.
This is also true of sociology and of anthropology. Malinowski
has his school, and so has Radcliffe-Brown and Kroeber and any
one else who is anyone and some who are not.
In 1931, Radcliffe-Brown wrote:
It is impossible to reconcile the different theories with one another, or
even to discover principles of method about which there is general
agreement. To say nothing of theories of the derivation of culture
from a lost Atlantis or a lost Pacific continent, we are offered a choice
between the Egyptian theory championed in its latest form by Professor
Elliot Smith, or the theory of culture cycles of Graebner, or the
somewhat different theory of Father Schmidt, or that of Frobenius,
and I know not how many more. Each school goes its own way, building
up its own hypothetical structure, not attempting to seek out
points on which agreement can be reached with others. The procedure
is often that of disciples of a cult rather than that of students of a
science. 6
And a little later Linton referred to the same situation. Falling
back on the youthfulness of the science, he tells, us that anthropology
is "unsure of its objectives" and that "this has resulted in the
development of a number of different schools." Although these
statements are over twenty years old, they apply to the contempor.ary
situation. 7
Obviously, where there are schools and no effective means ot
mediating among them and of integrating the results, there is no
one science, and where there is no one science, there is, properly
speaking, no science. If it is any comfort to the students of man,
we can say that their disciplines constitute a protoscience, an
Urnaturwissenschaft) out of which, it is· hoped, a science will come
in the fullness of time. Against hope there can be no argument.