Mis-education
Writing by abuhatem on Saturday, 31 of May , 2008 at 9:46 pm
Abraham Maslow, Eric Voegelin, Friedrich von Hayek and many others were very critical of what Max Weber called “the value free science” that is scientism, or knowledge which ignores universal moral values and recognizes nothing else but science itself. Voegelin and Hayek’s analysis was that a “value free science” was not even really possible, and that when one set of values was taken away, another was implicitly taught. Maslow wrote that taking morality or even religion out of science separated “two things which must be together” and created a societal pathology.
Here are a few examples from two textbooks (published 2006, 2008) on the value imposition and normative assertions of the sciences (business law and economics). All of the following quotes contain words of value or normative assertions which describe subjectively how things should be disguised as fact:
- Price controls are “good“
- “Unfortunately, we do not have a world government”
- In explaining ethical legal theories all deontological theories are rejected, including natural law theory, because “there is no compelling reason to act in this manner.” While relativism, legal positivism, and consequentialist theories such as utilitarianism are only criticized in that they are “difficult” to “implement” and “often cannot achieve their ends.”
- A “successful” anti-poverty program contains “regulations,” and “welfare programs” at the very least.
- “Business laws should be judged on the basis of their economic efficiency and in some cases social justice.” (You know, instead of natural God-given human rights which respect human dignity and grounded in natural law - such “fact” blatantly rejects natural law and disguises it as fact and not opinion).
Now I do not mind. I, nor the vast majority of students, will become statist utilitarian efficiency maximizers who look to the “state” to simply seek the aggregate “social welfare” and efficiency without regard to any intrinsic natural rights with “no compelling reason” to follow even if they did exist. But, this is just an example of modern scientism. For an even more amoral anti-natural law example see modern international relations theory wherein the “state” should “seek regional hegemony” or “a balance of power” and that yes, in the words of one textbook “morality has no place in international politics.”
C.S. Lewis was right in the Demolition of Man when he said that when school children are not even allowed to know the difference between simple right and wrong then there is a major problem. Ron Paul in his The Revolution is the only candidate who discussed the importance of liberty, not simply for its own sake, but because we respect every human being’s inherent dignity. Respect for human dignity seems to be something that must remain unspoken…
Category: Political philosophy
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