Beyond Relativism: Science and Human Values

Library Journal Masters (government, Dartmouth Coll.) first sets up the ``straw man'' of a value-free science and then laments that it has led to relativism and subjectivism in regard to values generally. He aims to show that the traditional values ``found in all major religions and ethical doctrines'' can be shown by science--when properly understood--to be implicit in human nature and that therefore no gap separates fact and value, ``is'' and ``ought,'' science and ethics. The book has the appearance and apparatus of a scholarly tour through intellectual history from the ancients to the present, but it is a confused conflation of ideas and concepts that does not come anywhere near its goal; in the end, it tells us nothing substantive about how science can help us cope with the complexity and difficult ethical choices of ``post-modern'' life.-- Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Mgt. Lib., Washington, D.C.