Original scientific paper

Values as a Subject of Sociological Science

Davorka Matić ; Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb

Abstract

Logical positivism denies the possibility of a scientific treatment of values. This paper, on the contrary, supports a view by which human values or the statements concerning the goals of social life, and not only those about the facts of the objective world, could be a subject of scientific inquiry.
Values determine all kinds of social selective behavior, and this is the reason why the concept of values is one of the key’ concepts of social sciences. Because of that many sociologists have focused their attention to the problem of value defining. The authoress supports comprehension according to which values are defined as criteria of choice, as durable standards for one’s own and other people’s actions assessments, but the same as components of the individual’s »life philosophy«. The study of values should take into account the ambiguous character of values; at the same time they express the individual’s subordination to the social world he lives in and also a projection of the future, the human need for transcending the present.
One of the theses in this paper is that values participate in the process of action rationalization, the concept of values therefore serving for the explanation of social behavior. Defending the evaluative explanation from critics as one ending in a closed circle, the authoress refers to the temporal character of social events as well as to the presumption of stability of behavior patterns.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

155250

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/155250

Publication date:

30.9.1990.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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