With the publication of Hans J. Morgenthau's Scientific Man vs. Power Politics more than two decades ago, one might have thought that the dragon of creeping scientism would have been laid to rest by now. But Scientific Man, self-confident and potentialiy omnipotent, dies hard.

Last December, for example, Donald F. Horning, President Johnson's science advisor, urged the creation of a Cabinet-level Department of Science with a starting budget of at least $2 billion. He was referring, of course, to the physical or “hard” sciences. On the “soft” side, President Johnson reportedly had privately criticized the “kooks and sociologists” who'used the War on Poverty as a living laboratory for their research experiments. I don't know if Mr. Johnson said this, but as a “soft” scientist, I kind of wish he had.