ABSTRACT
In The Theory of Experimental Inference, Churchman is a strong, if not unparalleled, advocate of the scientific/experimental method, with its emphasis on physically observable and numerically measurable cause and effect as a tool for philosophers of all persuasions in their rendering of valid and verifiable statements. He undertook to update the world view that a philosophy of ethics is ontologically continuous with a philosophy of nature. Churchman claims there can also be a science of ethics in which operational means can be used deliberatively to determine calculably good, desirable, and rational ends or purposes. ‘Facts’ must be disciplined by hermeneutic inquiry and an ethically built consensus in the demos: national priorities and goals must be put in tune with collective historical memory of what plans have been operationally effective. Ethics is the strategic manipulation of others by power and money to buy into the ‘good life’, where addicted consumers indulge their wildest fantasies by worshiping commodities with fetish status.
