Book Review: Science and Values
| Author | R. D. Maclennan |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205300800216 |
| Published date | 01 June 1953 |
| Date | 01 June 1953 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
134
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
SCIENCE
AND
VALUES.
By
John
A.
Irving.
1952.
(Toronto:
Ryerson
Press.
xi,
148pp.
$3.50)
This
book,
which
consists
of an
examination
of
the present
situation
in
the
social
sciences
and
philosophy
with
very
special
reference
to
the
contributions
of
Canadian
social
scientists and
philosophers,
is
a
plea
for
a
far
closer
understanding
than
has
hitherto
existed
between
the
two
disciplines.
Professor
Irving,
however,
is
not
writing
merely
for
the
academic
reader;
his aim
is
intensely practical,
so
much
so,
indeed,
that
the
reader
would
at
times
have
welcomed
more
philosophical
ana-
lysis.
The term
"value"
itself
is
a
case
in
point.
Neither
the
social sciences
nor
psychology,
Professor
Irving
argues,
can
"provide ultimate
moral
standards-for
this
task
belongs
to
phi-
losophy.
At
the
same
time
the
philosopher
must
come
to
terms
with
psychology
and
the
social
sciences."
Now,
if
by
values
we
mean
the
ultimate
ends
for
which
people
strive,
it
could
be
urged
that
these
ends
are
supplied
to
us
from
three
sources--from
a
philosophy
of
life,
from
an
ideology such
as
Communism,
and
from
religion.
The
first
of
these excludes
the
second,
but
it
does
not
necessarily
exclude
the
third.
Professor
Irving
provides
a
timely
and
instructive
critical
discussion
of
Communism,
but
a
rather
scanty one
of
religion
in
his
chapter
on
Existentialism.
It
is
clear
that
he
is
really
concerned
with
the
first.
As
the aim
of
his
work
is
to
show
the
importance
and,
indeed,
urgency
which
the
methods and
results,
rightly
understood,
of
social
science
and
psychology
have
for a
practical
philosophy
of
man
and
society,
such
as
must inspire
democracy,
if
democracy
itself
is
to
have
a
future,
it
would
be
unfair to
direct undue
attention
to
further
questions
which
we
should
like
him
to answer.
All
the
same,
the
problem
which
is
created
for
us
in
our
own
age
by
these
new
sciences
is,
as
he
says,
one
of
power,
"the
power to
con-
trol
to
our
own
purposes
the behaviour
of
human
beings
and
social
groups."
It
is
therefore
of
surpassing
importance
that
the
philosopher
should
be
able
to give
us
clear
guidance
as
to
what
these
purposes
are
or
ought
to
be.
Nonetheless,
we
may very
well
agree with
Professor
Irving
that
"we
have
not
understood
the nature
of
values
until
we
have
discovered
their
place
in
the
larger
complex
of
social
attitudes
and
beliefs
which
constitute
the traditional
attitudes
of
a
specific
culture
pattern."
In
simpler
language
we
all
know
the
truth
of
this
in
our
per-
sonal
relationships:
to
love
my
neighbour
truly
I must understand
his
personality
and
his
needs.
Must
not,
then,
a
philosophy
of
man
and
society
avail
itself
of
the
insights
which
these
sciences
can
provide?
It
is,
indeed,
only
with the aid
of
these
insights
that
a
philosophy
of
dem-
ocracy
can
hope to
make
its fundamental
ideas
of
individual
freedom
and
social
justice
unite
and spread
effectively.
One
of
our
traditional
"culture
patterns"
comes
out
in
our
popular
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