The Subjective Meaning of Objective Science

Science has its meaning as the objective pursuit of a purpose which has been subjectively chosen by a person or persons. This purpose or value can never be investigated by the particular scientific experiment or investigation to which it has given birth and meaning. Consequently, any discussion of the control of human beings by the behavioral sciences must first and most deeply concern itself with the subjectively chosen purposes which such an application of science is intended to implement.

–Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person, Ch 21: The Place of the Individual in the New World of the Behavioral Sciences, pg 395

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