Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences
Abraham H. Maslow
Appendix E. Preface to "New Knowledge in Human Values"
(A. H. Maslow. Copyright 1959 by Harper and Row.)
This volume springs from the belief, first that the ultimate disease
of our time is valuelessness; second, that this state is more
crucially dangerous than ever before in history; and finally,
that something can be done about it by man's own rational efforts.
The state of valuelessness has been variously described as anomie,
amorality, anhedonia, rootlessness, emptiness, hopelessness, the
lack of something to believe in and to be devoted to. It has come
to its present dangerous point because all the traditional value
systems ever offered to mankind have in effect proved to be failures
(our present state proves this to be so). Furthermore, wealth
and prosperity, technological advance, widespread education, democratic
political forms, even honestly good intentions and avowals of
good will have, by their failure to produce peace, brotherhood,
serenity, and happiness, confronted us even more nakedly and unavoidably
with the profundities that mankind has been avoiding by its busy-ness
with the superficial.
We are reminded here of the "neurosis of success." People
can struggle on hopefully, and even happily, for false panaceas
so long as these are not attained. Once attained, however, they
are soon discovered to be false hopes. Collapse and hopelessness
ensue and continue until new hopes become possible.
We too are in an interregnum between old value systems that have
not worked and new ones not yet born, an empty period which could
be borne more patiently were it not for the great and unique dangers
that beset mankind. We are faced with the real possibility of
annihilation, and with the certainty of "small" wars,
of racial hostilities, and of widespread exploitation. Specieshood
is far in the future.
The cure for this disease is obvious. Te need a validated, usable
system of human values, values that we can believe in and devote
ourselves to because they are true rather than because we are
exhorted to "believe and have faith."
And for the first time in history, many of us feel, such a system—based
squarely upon valid knowledge of the nature of man, of his society,
and of his works—may be possible.
This is not to maintain that this knowledge is now available
in the final form necessary for breeding conviction and action.
It is not. What is available, however, is enough to give us confidence
that we know the kinds of work that have to be done in order to
progress toward such a goal. It appears possible for man, by his
own philosophical and scientific efforts, to move toward self-improvement
and social improvement.