HUMAN+SCIENCES+AND+VALUES

BACK TO Knower's Perspective = HUMAN SCIENCE AND VALUES  =

Can human behaviour be usefully classified and categorized? Can it be classified within a culture? Across cultures? Can patterns of behaviour be identified as human behaviour? Within a culture?

What beliefs or prejudices might be involved in our answers to these questions?

In what ways might the beliefs and interests of human scientists influence their conclusions? Do the same considerations apply in other areas of knowledge such as the natural sciences or mathematics?

In what ways might social, political, cultural and religious factors affect the types of human science research that are financed and undertaken, or rejected?

Is research in the human sciences a viable route to learn about and, in the long run, transform or improve public policy or the common good? Or is human science research intrinsically valuable for the sake of the knowledge that can be gained? Might it rather have a utilitarian or even covert purpose behind it?How, if at all, can we determine when it is which, and if one or another of these purposes predominates?