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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - Appendices - 2. A Methodological Note on Facts and Valuations in Social Science - 4. The Points of View Adopted in This Book
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Appendix 2. Note on Facts and Valuations 1061
the various valuations if their holders also had the more correct and comfrehensive
factual knowledge which science provides.
3. Prognoses and Programs, A study of valuations as they, in the form of interests
and ideals, are actually held in various racial, regional, economic, and social groups of
American society is, naturally, an important task in itself in the theoretical exploration
of social reality. As the future social development will, in part, depend upon the reac-
tions of the various groups and upon their relative power, the prognoses of future trends
—^which represent the ultimate goal for theoretical research—must include an investi-
gation of the valuations and of the power behind valuations.
Prognoses and programs are in this scheme of thinking naturally interdependent: (a)
the prognoses will partly depend on the actually conceived programs of various individ-
uals and groups with diverse valuations and with various amounts of power; (b) rational
programs must, on the other hand, be built upon the prognoses of trends which these
various groups and individuals intend to bend in one way or the other; (c) even the
existing programs of individuals and groups are, of course, founded upon ideas about
future trends; (d) practical research tries to rationalize the existing programs by connect-
ing the valuations basic to those programs with available scientific knowledge; (e) to the
degree that practical research is successful in this, and to the extent that the educational
agencies in society are effective in disseminating knowledge, it will Influence trends and.
consequently, be a cause of change of programs to be considered in theoretical prognoses
Existing programs are multiple and conflicting, at least in a democratic society where
no one group has all the power.® Practical research cannot, therefore, proceed on the
old liberalistic doctrine that there is a ‘‘harmony of interest” and that there is only one
program which is directed toward all the good in the world. Theoretical analysis reveals
that there is actual struggle and competition between individuals and between groups,
and that social trends take their form as an outcome of this struggle and competition.
For practical analysis, therefore, there must be alternative programs.
4. The Selection of Value Premises, The scheme of principles for selecting value
premises and introducing them into scientific research, presented in the last two sections,
represents an ideal for social science. The possibilities of approaching it, however, are
severely restricted by a number of circumstances:
(a) The scientific basis for constructing our “field of valuations” is poor. Public
opinion with respect to the Negro problem has not been studied much, and the studies
made do not meet our requirements.’* For the most part we have been forced to base
our generalizations on impressionistic observations of the values held by different groups
and individuals.
(b) Many of the valuations held with respect to the Negro problem have much
* The more “normal** conditions are, the greater is the number of conflicting programs.
In a crisis situation—economic, social, or political—there really is an approximation to
“interest harmony** in society because interests have, for the time being, been taken away
from long-range objectives and concentrated upon one, mutually shared, short-range objec-
tive. In a depression both employers and employees can be shown to have a common interest
in economic expansion, raising volume of credit, demand, prices, production, employment
and wage-earnings. In war the common interest rising above all other goals is to win
victory. In a crisis the methodological problem for practical research is, therefore, rela-
tively simple.
" See Appendix i o, Section 2.
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