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1059

(1944) [MARC] Author: Gunnar Myrdal
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Note: Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago. Therefore, this work is protected by copyright, restricting your legal rights to reproduce it. However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now. Read more about copyright.

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Appendix 2. Note on Facts and Valuations 1059
1. Theoretical and Practical Research. Our entire discussion is based upon a distinc-
tion between two aspects, or stages, of social science research: the “theoretical’’ and the
“practical,” By “theoretical” research we mean here all the research which is directed
purely and exclusively toward ascertaining facts and causal relations between facts. By
“practical” research we mean the logical procedure of relating value judgments to fac-
tual situations and to actual trends of change and, from their combination, deriving
scientific plans for policies aimed at inducing alterations of the anticipated social trends
(“social engineering”).
The relations established in theoretical research are simply causal. In practical research
the causal relations are transposed into furfosejul relations. The sequence in theoretical
research—from cause to effect—Is in social engineering turned into the reverse order
from ends to means. In practical research the causal relations established by theoretical
research are taken as facts.
Theoretical research is primarily concerned with the ’present situation and the fast
development. It attempts to establish, out of systematized experience of the present
and the past, a rational knowledge, in as general terms as possible, of the causal rela-
tions between elementary factors in the social process. Its final goal is to be able on this
basis to forecast the future by rational prognoses.
Practical research is exclusively concerned with the future. Its principal viewpoint is
that the future represents a set of alternatively possible trends of development. What
future development will actually occur is, from the practical point of view, a matter
of choice, in so far as decisions and actions on the part of the citizen and society can
determine this development’. Its final goal, therefore, is the scientific planning of
“induced changes.”
Between the two aspects, or stages, of social research there exist the following main
relations;
(a) The direction of theoretical research is determined by the practical purposes held
in view. In a study of the American Negro problem which is as predominantly practical
in its intentions as ours, the frame for all our theoretical research thus consists of certain
practical questions concerning the future status of the Negro and the future of race
relations In America.
(b) Practical problems can, on the other hand, be approached only on the basis of the
theoretical analysis of actual facts and their causal interrelations.
(c) On theoretical grounds some practical goals can be shown to be futile—that is,
impossible of execution. Theoretical research thus sets the scope of practical research
by determining what is feasible.
(d) Knowledge of facts is never enough for posing the practical problems concerning
what is right, just, desirable and advisable. Practical conclusions are, by logical necessity,
inferences from value premises as well as from factual premises.
In our study it is our ambition, first, to keep this distinction between theoretical and
practical research clear throughout the various specific problems we are dealing withj
and, third, to treat the practical problems as problems of scientific research. Wc shall,
second, not to shun the practical problems but rather make them central in our work;
therefore, have to devote the closest attention to value premises.
2. Value Premises. Value premises in research have to satisfy the following criteria:
(a) They must be explicitly stated and not hidden as tacit assumptions.

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