Babson's Boulders

A Heuristic Exploration of the Dimensions of Value

Abstract

I present this heuristic pilot study as a student of values. I offer it as a teacher to myself and to encourage others to join this project’s search for a more intuitive and commonsense approach to Hartman’s I, E, S dimensions of value, which he believed holds great descriptive, explanatory, and predictive powers concerning human behaviour. Unfolding in the pages of my The New Science of Axiological Psychology (Rodopi Press, 2005) is extensive evidence supporting this philos- opher’s hypothesis. Now I introduce “Babson’s Boulders” in an effort to explore the “axiological signatures” of twenty-four values chiselled into granite boulders during the Great Depression of 1929. Roger Babson predicted that depression, and he survived with his wealth intact and without losing his moral compass, when many on Wall Street were losing their shirts. This pilot study examines the relationship between the Hartman’s I, E, S “axes or lenses” of valuation and Babson’s self- proclaimed core values in an effort to deepen our everyday understanding of axiological science.