Philosophical Reflection On The Value Rationality Lack Of Science And Technology

Since the Renaissance, western scholars had a lot of treatise on the major influence of scientific and technological activities on social life. Bacon, the well-known philosopher, put forward that knowledge is power, which means humans’ force of conquering nature was hidden in the knowledge. After Enlightenment Movement, the western rationalism had been greatly developed. The pursuit of and rely on scientific truth was considered to be the highest moral character in human nature, while the pursuit of knowledge was the driving force of morality formation. Nonetheless, there will be some hazard when people pursue scientific and technological value yet ignore the humanist rationality. Webb Marx, a German sociologist, saw the phenomenon ambivalently and first proposed the concepts of Instrumental Rationality and Value Rationality. On the one hand, he stated the rationality and inevitability of instrumental rationality; On the other hand, he expressed deep anxiety about the instrumental rationality. With the further development of instrumental rationality, human beings get never had the material prosperity and entered the industrial age led a new era of civilization, but in the back, but it also brought the many social problems, including people and himself, the society and the natural relationship deterioration, which let us to re-examine the motivation for the development of science and technology, reflect on their own rational activity.From the beginning of last century, the discussion of instrumental rationality and value rationality had risen, but more researches were in the field of instrumental rationality. The issue of value rationality lack was mainly attributed to the expansion of instrumental rationality, which had lead to the limited development of value rationality and consequently caused the fracture of the relationship between instrumental rationality and value rationality. From my point of view, the lack of value rationality was caused by instrumental rationality expansion from some extent, but there are also some inherent reasons from value rationality’s own side. It seems to be more close to the theme, if in the subject of man we explore the reason and resolution of value rationality lack, from the perspective of value rationality itself.This paper debates the issue of value rationality in the height of philosophy, demonstrating the reason of value rationality lack from three aspects of epistemology origin, social and historical origin and realistic origin, so as to seek solutions for the issue. It hopefully contributes to the reveal of value rationality and the foundation of harmonious society.