Scientism and Values

Helmut Schoeck

From the author:

The purpose of this paper is to consider social science and the problem of value within the over-all framework of “scientism and the study of man.” By “scientism” I mean here a boundary transgression or a misuse of otherwise legitimate procedures and attitudes of science.

To put the problem into clearer perspective, it may be well to consider briefly what is meant here by science and the “enterprise of science.” To a large extent, of course, this is a matter of method. But that the material success and the prestige of modern natural science have aggravated the problem—if they have not actually created it—goes without saying.

Scientism and Values by Helmut Schoeck

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Meet the Author
Helmut Schoeck
Central Planning and the Limits of Social Control
Mises Daily Helmut Schoeck

Men do well under a plan and its controls if the Gestalt to be accomplished makes sense, is not too distant, and offers rewards as well as challenges for different levels of skill. But this is quite different from a superimposed, infallible political philosophy which would urge on us an engineered society.

Central Planning and Neomercantilism
Helmut Schoeck
From the author: Today as ever we can point to gaps and disturbances in our social, cultural, and economic environment which we all might wish were not there. There will never be a society so perfect, and with all its members on the same high level
The New Argument in Economics
Helmut Schoeck
From the author: As the history of social theories shows, the pleaders and engineers of “social change” usually need a dichotomy, a “polarization” of social reality. Once it was proletariat and bourgeoisie, imperialist and colonial people, rural and
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References

D. Van Nostrand Company, INC. Princeton, NJ, 1960