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In Volume 2 of Foundations of Futures Studies, Wendell Bell goes beyond possible and probable futures to the studies of preferable futures. He shows that a concern with ethics, morality, and human values follows directly from the futurist purposes of discovering or inventing, examining, and proposing desirable futures. He examines moral judgments as an inescapable aspect of all decision making and conscious human action, even in the everyday lives of ordinary people. Thus, he argues that moral analysis ought to become a part of all the human sciences. He asks, what is a good society and how can we know that it is good? In this pathbreaking new book, Bell moves beyond cultural relativism to critical evaluation. He compares depictions of the good society in the proto-social science of utopian writers, from Thomas More to Karl Marx; describes and illustrates objective methods of moral judgment; assesses religion, law, and the judgments of group members as sources of what is morally right; documents the existence of universal human values. And specifies their origins; explores the most important of all human values, human life itself; and shows that if human societies are to thrive in the coming global society of the future, some human values must be changed. In short, he explains the ethical foundations of futures studies and how they relate to all human action.
Wendell Bell is professor emeritus of sociology at Yale University, where he also served as chairman of the department. He is a member of the World Future Society and the World Futures Studies Federation, and now he works as a private consultant in this new field. |
