Only one group of
purposes is so far surprisingly neglected in the realm of the
psychological laboratory: the purposes of the economic life, the
purposes of commerce and industry, of business and the market in the
widest sense of the word. The question how far applied psychology can
be extended in this direction is the topic of the following
discussions.
III
MEANS AND ENDS
Applied psychology is evidently to be classed with the technical
sciences. It may be considered as psychotechnics, since we must
recognize any science as technical if it teaches us to apply
theoretical knowledge for the furtherance of human purposes. Like all
technical sciences, applied psychology tells us what we ought to do if
we want to reach certain ends; but we ought to realize at the
threshold where the limits of such a technical science lie, as they
are easily overlooked, with resulting confusion. We must understand
that every technical science says only: you must make use of this
means, if you wish to reach this or that particular end. But no
technical science can decide within its limits whether the end itself
is really a desirable one. The technical specialist knows how he ought
to build a bridge or how he ought to pierce a tunnel, presupposing
that the bridge or the tunnel is desired. But whether they are
desirable or not is a question which does not concern the technical
scientist, but which must be considered from economic or political or
other points, of view.
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