476 BENEDICT M. ASHLEY 



Crete historical situations. If we select from among the various 

 notions of " value " which philosophers have proposed, the com- 

 mon view that " value " concerns the relation of means to end, 

 then it becomes at once apparent that there is no difficulty 

 whatsoever in the idea of a scientific study of means/ Cer- 

 tainly it is possible in an objective and rational fashion to 

 determine empirically whether or not a proposed means will 

 probably lead to a stated goal or not. If this were not possible 

 then the application of natural science to technology would fail. 



The real difficulty concerns not the means, but the determin- 

 ation of the end. In the case of technology this question is 

 easily answered, the end is the thing or effect to be produced, 

 and this is a matter of choice lying outside the technology itself. 

 The doctor does not debate whether the patient should be 

 healed; that has already been decided by the patient. The 

 designer of weapons does not decide whether a war is to be 

 fought; that is the decision of the government. Some, therefore, 

 regard social science as " social engineering " and argue that it 

 studies means that would be productive of this or that social 

 effect, but is not at all concerned with which end is to be 

 chosen, since this pertains only to policy-makers. 



Such a view, however, also threatens the autonomy of social 

 science, since it would reduce it to a technology. The obvious 

 fact is that social scientists, no matter how often admonished 

 by value-free purists, have never been able just to take ends 

 for granted. They are everlastingly fascinated by the different 

 ends which individuals, groups and societies seek, and with the 

 effect such goal-seeking has upon the whole society. Indeed 

 in countless different ways we find that contemporary social 

 science is very much concerned to point out that it is the goal 

 of a society which integrates its culture and behavior, and it 

 is a disunity of goal that leads to social disintegration. 



Some believe that the sociologist has done his part when he 

 has uncovered the actual goals of social groups and assayed 



* See the discussion of the history of this queston in Leo Strauss, Natural Right 

 and History, New York, 1953. 



