Value and Objectivity

The role of value in the scientific inquiry of human phenomena

The task of the empirical sciences is not to furbish binding norms and ideals where prescriptions are to be acquired for direct practical activity . This implies that value-judgments are not to be retrieved from scientific inquiry because they dwell on certain ideals and are originally subjective ADDIN EN .CITE Weber19921 15Max WeberMax Weber on Socialism and Political RadicalismThe Political and Social Theory of Max Weber : Collected Essays53-73Reprint1992University Of Chicago Press (Weber

Scientific analysis can meddle with

the inquiry regarding the aptness for achieving a certain end through certain means . The capability to ascertain which means are suitable for certain ends leads to a prospective analysis on the chances of ever arriving at the proposed ends through the available means

However , even if science can provide such overview of reaching the end through an understanding of the most suitable means , the feat of choosing in itself is still dependent on the individual and not precisely on the scientific analysis itself . Though scientific analysis can provide the possible consequences of certain methods and the assistance through empirical knowledge , nevertheless the fact remains that the course of action remains reliant on the decision of the individual

Moreover , more general ' problems - the broader its cultural significance ' - require more of personal axioms of belief and less of the data provided by the empirical sciences . Consequently , the meaningfulness or the importance of a value-concept is , for the most part , significant to those whose value-judgments are ascribed on the value-concept itself . Inasmuch as those which have connections with our valuations remain far more important to us , their very structure as such is the primary reason why it would be worthwhile to investigate such matters

Only through an eventual understanding that merely a fraction of an infinite reality is significant thus the individual phenomenon becomes meaningful . We ought to include only those essential attributes of the phenomenon and exclude everything else that bears no significance in the context of the phenomenon or cultural events . On the other hand , a more general part of reality contributes less to the causal interpretation of singular phenomena

In the exact sciences , the regularities observed which in turn can be decisively formulated into a law are indeed valuable . Yet in the cultural sciences , such regularities offer no or less significance for the pursuit of reality for they are devoid of content inasmuch as these regularities do not come in a universal sense . These regularities further , are to be treated not as the ends themselves but rather as the means in obtaining the reality . Individual interpretations based on personal valuation which reflect the connective importance of phenomena to the values to the individual are as open as they widely used in the cultural sciences . The more general the elements of any phenomena the more it loses rigidity and valuation in the cultural sciences for these elements become abstracted which eventually leads to an emptying of its primary content

One essential point...