Moral Judgements

Moral Judgements

Jakob Bronowski’s book, “Science and Human Values” argues that the scientific method of inquiry into reality provides a generally applicable foundation for moral judgement. Bronowski says, “in order to keep the study in a manageable field. I will continue to choose a society in which the principle of truth rules. Therefore the society which I will examine is that formed by scientists themselves: it is the body of scientists” (Bronowski 58). Bronowski makes it clear in his book that he is going to base his study on scientists. There are five steps in the scientific method of inquiry into reality. The first one being Observation, the second is Hypothesis, the third is Experiments, the fourth is Theory, and the fifth being Publishing.

In the book’s second chapter, “The Habit of Truth”, Bronowski explains how people observe or recognize things. “The scientist or artist takes two facts or experiences which are separate; he finds in them a likeness which had not been seen before; and he creates a unity by showing the likeness” (Bronowski 27). The method of observation requires the scientist to find the similarity in both objects and make a generalization out of it. The example Bronowski uses of, is a coin. A person first sees the head of the penny and then the tail, and he then concludes that both parts are from the same coin. Bronowski says, “…we know the thing only by mapping and joining our experiences of its aspects” (Bronowski 31).

The second step will be making a hypothesis or an educated guess of what is going to happen. The example Bronowski uses is of this little girl who knew a doctor who wore a hearing aid, thus every time she met a person with a hearing aid, she automatically assumed that the person is a doctor. The generalization that the little girl made was of course mistaken (Bronowski 37).

The third step is the test to see if the hypothesis is correct. Bronowski says, “the place of experience is to test and correct the concept. The test is, “Will the concept work? Does it give an unforced unity to the experience of men? Does the concept make life orderly, not by edict but in fact?”” (Bronowski 41). This test makes sure that the results will turn out similar every time according to the conditions of the experiment.

The forth step is to compose a theory.