What do know about Clear Direction?

April 19, 2006 6:30 PM

Ever heard of Clear Direction and its relation to formal axiology? Is it scammy? Legit? What can you tell me about it?

My boyfriend's boss had all his managers take a survey today as part of the Clear Direction program, a new business solution/training package he's signed up for. The program came up with a "management profile" for my boyfriend. On the one hand, the profile is typical Myers-Briggs personality stuff; on the other hand, there's a whiff of pseudoscience to the whole thing -- it tries very hard to sell "formal axiology" as a hard science, and it talks about "balancing one's six thought centers" and such.

Googling tells me that formal axiology does seem to be a real, though small, scholarly field, but otherwise I'm coming up with circular hits -- everything leads back to Hartman, who invented formal axiology, Hartman's co-authors, and the society Hartman founded. And there's little about Clear Direction and how it truly relates to formal axiology....or whether it's a reasonable program. Is this the usual business process/personality/leadership thing, or is it something worse?

posted by climalene to work & money (1 comment total)

I don't know about that program, but it does look like "formal axiology" is not a reputable academic field. I work in ethics and occasionally value theory (what most people now call axiology) and I've never heard of it. The so-called "Science of Value" is described here and it reads like a pseudo-science, pseudo-math, or pseudo philosophy purporting to explain why we like Christmas using transfinite numbers. Axiology certainly has nothing to do with "thought centers".

Sounds like either a cult built around an former professor at Tennessee or a cult he built. I would stay away.
posted by ontic at 9:09 PM on April 19, 2006