Scientific Value Relativism

This paper examines Arnold Brecht's 20th-century arguments against relativistic defeatism in political science. Brecht asserted that justice is an empirical problem, amenable to scientific investigation, and that while science cannot establish absolute value, it can demonstrate the universality of certain culturally shared values. The paper analyzes Brecht’s counterarguments to the strict separation between “is” and “ought” in value judgments, proposing that observable links between the two, demonstrable through intersubjective evidence, weaken the relativist position.

Isabel Ruiz-Gallardón