Foundations of Futures Studies: Volume 2: Values, Objectivity, and the Good Society

by Wendell Bell

Futures studies is a new field of inquiry involving systematic and explicit thinking about alternative futures. Wendell Bell's two-volume work Foundations of Futures Studies is widely acknowledged as the fundamental work on the subject. In Volume 2, Bell goes beyond possible and probable futures to the study of preferable futures . He shows that 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 action, even in the everyday lives of ordinary people. Now available in paperback with a new preface from the author, Volume 2 of Foundations of Futures Studies moves beyond cultural relativism to critical evaluation. Bell compares depictions of the good society by utopian writers, describes objective methods of moral judgment, assesses religion and law as sources of what is morally right, documents the existence of universal human values, and shows that if human beings are to thrive in the global society of the future, some human values must be changed.

404 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Martine Delannoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic must read part 2 with a focus on values and good of society.

[Matt Mayevsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

As in the first part, there is a lack of context of economic sciences. It seems to me that I understand the author's intentions, although reducing future studies to sociology and political science, gets rid of the book's essential features. Maximum rating for the amount of work and commitment.