Abstract

Usually axiological systems and scientific theories are contrasted with each other. Significant differences between them are stressed: scientific theories purport to describe the world, while axiological systems do not. There is no common agreement as to what the values are and where one can find them. Scientific theories can be justified by experience, whereas axiological systems cannot and theorists differ as to how they should be justified. Scientific theories are to be true and useful, but it is not clear how axiological systems should be evaluated. As far as scientific theories are concerned, commonly accepted procedures of their formulation, verification and evaluation have been established, whereas there are no such procedures for axiological systems. All this is taken to show that scientific theories are much better off than axiological systems.Although there is no denying that scientific theories and axiological systems can be contrasted with each other, there are also some important similarities between them, which are rarely mentioned, however. The author demonstrates far reaching analogies between the structure of scientific theories and the structure of axiological systems