tailieunhanh - Luận án kinh tế - "Human and action" - Chapter 39

XXXIX. ECONOMICS AND THE ESSENTIAL PROBLEMS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE 1. Science and Life It is customary to find fault with modern science because it abstains fromexpressing judgments of value. Living and acting man, we are told, has no use for Wertfreiheit; he needs to know what he should aim at. If science does not answer this question, it is sterile. | XXXIX. ECONOMICS AND THE ESSENTIAL PROBLEMS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE 1. Science and Life IT is customary to find fault with modern science because it abstains from expressing judgments of value. Living and acting man we are told has no use for Wertfreiheit he needs to know what he should aim at. If science does not answer this question it is sterile. However the objection is unfounded. Science does not value but it provides acting man with all the information he may need with regard to his valuations. It keeps silence only when the question is raised whether life itself is worth living. This question of course has been raised too and will always be raised. What is the meaning of all these human endeavors and activities if in the end nobody can escape death and decomposition Man lives in the shadow of death. Whatever he may have achieved in the course of his pilgrimage he must one day pass away and abandon all that he has built. Each instant can become his last. There is only one thing that is certain about the individual s future death. Seen from the point of view of this ultimate and inescapable outcome all human striving appears vain and futile. Moreover human action must be called inane even when judged merely with regard to its immediate goals. It can never bring full satisfaction it merely gives for an evanescent instant a partial removal of uneasiness. As soon as one want is satisfied new wants spring up and ask for satisfaction Civilization it is said makes people poorer because it multiplies their wishes and does not soothe but kindles desires. All the busy doings and dealings of hard-working men their hurrying pushing and bustling are nonsensical for they provide neither happiness nor quiet. Peace of mind and serenity cannot be won by action and secular ambition but only by renunciation and resignation. The only kind of conduct proper to the sage is escape into the inactivity of a purely contemplative existence. Yet all such qualms doubts and scruples are .