A history of axiology: the science of value

Robert S Hartman

The quest for a ‘science of value’ originated with early Greek philosophers’ work taking a giant leap forwards when the father of modern value science, Robert S Hartman, developed his value theory, in an attempt to define the meaning of ‘what is good’ – since philosophy had failed to define this.

Hartman was born in Berlin on 27 January 1910 as Robert Schirokauer. He attended the German College of Political Science, the University of Paris, the London School of Economics and Berlin University, where he received his bachelor of laws degree (LLB) in 1932. He taught at Berlin University and served as an assistant district court judge. As a judge in Berlin, Hartman increasingly saw the corruption of the Nazi régime and initiated a campaign to question and challenge Nazi Party officials. However, because of his vocal opposition, he was forced to flee Germany in 1932, with the Nazi take-over imminent, and change his surname to Hartman, while retaining Schirokauer as his middle name.

During 1934–41, still under surveillance from the Nazis, he worked as Walt Disney’s representative, first in Scandinavia, later in Mexico and Central America. In 1941, with his wife and son, he moved to the United States, of which they all later became citizens.

Hartman lectured extensively throughout the US, Canada, Latin America and Europe, where he held more than 50 lectureships, was a visiting professor at Yale University and a research professor of philosophy at both the National University of Mexico and the University of Tennessee.

Having experienced Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, through the successful organisation of evil, Hartman dedicated his work to answer the fundamental question: ‘What is good?’

Hartman struggled to answer the question in such a way that good can be organised to help to preserve and enhance the value of human life. Axiology – the science of value theory, a theoretical area in which Hartman specialised, helped him to find his answer. Borrowing from several moral philosophers, notably GE Moore, Hartman concluded: “A thing is good when it fulfils the intension of its concept.”

Realising that the primary difference between natural order and moral disorder lay in the mathematics which orders the natural world, Harman discovered value mathematics – a discovery comparable with those of Einstein, Galileo and Newton. In doing so, he discovered the principles which order and structure not only our moral decisions, but also all value judgements.

Hartman developed and proved the hierarchy of concepts of value in three dimensions; from this, he constructed the original edition of the Hartman Value Profile. This was the first axiological instrument, an inventory which measured a person’s capacity to make value judgements about the world and self.

Professor Wayne Carpenter

Prof Carpenter was a student of Dr Robert S Hartman, at the University of Tennessee. Once graduated from that university and pursuing his PhD at Vanderbilt University, he was drafted by the army and assigned the commission of designing a decision-simulator for commanders flying in Vietnam-based helicopters. In order to do this, he had to research all decision theories and models, from Aristotle to the present. Fortunately, he could read both French and German. What he discovered was that the Value Science Theory being developed by his former Kant professor at UT was at the basis of all decision theories. He realised then that Dr Hartman had, indeed, formulated a universal theory. Prof Carpenter was excited by this realisation. He decided, then and there, that he would devote his life, once out of the army, to working with Hartman.

Unfortunately, Hartman died unexpectedly a year before Prof Carpenter was discharged. That said, Prof Carpenter did not lose his resolve, even though he had to spend the following few years building a financial foundation for his family. Soon, he had given up his conventional work and devoted himself totally to extending Hartman’s work.

Prof Carpenter relied on many of Hartman’s unfinished papers and clinical notes, taking these and carefully sifting from them all possible programmable relationships. He reports that he had all four walls completely covered with equations. From this, he identified the relationships which had not been made and proceeded to complete the logic and build a system of assessment such as the world had never seen.

Prof Carpenter is one of those rare geniuses who becomes one with his life’s passion. The extension of Hartman’s work has been that passion.

Prof Carpenter is one who has spent his entire career, spanning over 30 years, devoted to developing a coherent, computerised measurement system of this work. In fact, many who now boast about being able to measure by means of the Hartman Value Profile (or its derivatives) actually owe their ability to do so to Carpenter’s trailblazing work. It must be said, however, that none has been able to achieve the depth or completeness of Carpenter’s system – not surprisingly, given the more-than-20-year head start which he has had.

In addition, many have alluded, as justification for their own results, to the validation studies which Prof Carpenter has done. However, unless one utilises Axiometrics™ methodology and is engaged with Carpenter’s system, there is no guarantee that the validity established by Carpenter can be claimed.