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“The fate of an epoch which has eaten of the tree of knowledge is that it must know that we cannot learn the realm of the world from the results of Its analysis, be it ever so perfect, it must rather be m a position to create this meaning itself. It must recognize that general Views of lIfe and the unIverse can never be the products of increasing empirIcal knowledge, and that the highest Ideals, which move us most forcefully, are always formed only m the struggle with other Ideals which are just as sacred to others as ours are to us.”
― The Methodology of the Social Sciences
― The Methodology of the Social Sciences
“An attitude of moral indifference has no connection with scientific "objectivity".”
― The Methodology of the Social Sciences
― The Methodology of the Social Sciences
“To apply the results of this analysis in the making of a decision, however, is not a task which science can undertake. It is rather the task of the acting, willing person. He weighs and chooses from among the values involved according to his own conscience and Ius personal view of the world.
Science can make him 'realize' that all action and naturally, according to the circumstances, inaction imply in their consequences the espousal of certain values - and herewith - what is today so willingly overlooked - the rejection of certain others. The act of choice Itself is his own responsibility.”
― The Theory of Social and Economic Organization
Science can make him 'realize' that all action and naturally, according to the circumstances, inaction imply in their consequences the espousal of certain values - and herewith - what is today so willingly overlooked - the rejection of certain others. The act of choice Itself is his own responsibility.”
― The Theory of Social and Economic Organization
“It is true that we regard as objectively valuable those innermost elements of the "personalIty," those highest and most ultimate value-Judgments which determine our conduct and give meaning and significance to our life. We can indeed espouse these values only when they appear to us as valid, as derived from our highest values and when they are developed in the struggle against the difficulties which life presents. Certainly, the dignity of the "personality" lies in the fact that for it there exIst values about which It organizes its life; - even 1£ these values are m certain cases concentrated exclusively WIthin the sphere of the person's "individuality," then "self-realization" in those interests for which it claims validIty as values, is the idea wIth respect to which its whole existence is oriented.”
― The Methodology of the Social Sciences
― The Methodology of the Social Sciences
“The answer to this question is closely connected with that other question which arises here, that of who is to do the planning. It is about this question that all the dispute about “economic planning” centers. This is not a dispute about whether planning is to be done or not. It is a dispute as to whether planning is to be done centrally, by one authority for the whole economic system, or is to be divided among many individuals. Planning in the specific sense in which the term is used in contemporary controversy necessarily means central planning—direction of the whole economic system according to one unified plan. Competition, on the other hand, means decentralized planning by many separate persons. The halfway house between the two, about which many people talk but which few like when they see it, is the delegation of planning to organized industries, or, in other words, monopoly.”
― The Use of Knowledge in Society
― The Use of Knowledge in Society
Classics and the Western Canon
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— last activity Feb 21, 2026 12:09PM
This is a group to read and discuss those books generally referred to as “the classics” or “the Western canon.” Books which have shaped Western though ...more
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