Scientism

The term scientism has been used with different meanings in the literature. The term is often used as a pejorative to indicate the improper usage of science or scientific claims. The charge of scientism often is used as a counter-argument to appeals to scientific authority in contexts where science might not apply, such as when the topic is understood to be beyond the scope of scientific inquiry. In contrast with this was its usage in the early 20th century, which was as a neutral descriptive and roughly synonymous with logical positivism. The term scientism can also be used, sometimes with a more neutral tone, to describe the view that science has authority over all other interpretations of life, such as philosophical, religious, mythical, spiritual, or humanistic explanations. It has also been applied to the view that the natural sciences have authority over other fields of inquiry such as social sciences. The terms "scientific imperialism" and "scientific fundamentalism" have occasionally been used to refer to some of these concepts in an almost exclusively pejorative manner.

Overview

Reviewing the references to scientism in the works of contemporary scholars, Gregory R. Peterson detects two main broad themes:

• (1) it is used to criticize a totalizing view of science as if it were capable of describing all reality and knowledge, or as if it were the only true way to acquire knowledge about reality and the nature of things;
• (2) it is used to denote a border-crossing violation in which the theories and methods of one (scientific) discipline are inappropriately applied to another (scientific or non-scientific) discipline and its domain. Examples of this second usage is to label as scientism the attempts to claim science as the only or primary source of human values (a traditional domain of ethics), or as the source of meaning and purpose (a traditional domain of religion and related worldviews).

According to Mikael Stenmark in the Encyclopedia of science and religion, while the doctrines that are described as scientism have many possible forms and varying degrees of ambition, they share the idea that the boundaries of science (that is, typically the natural sciences) could and should be expanded so that something that has not been previously considered as a subject pertinent to science can now be understood as part of science, (usually with science becoming the sole or the main arbiter regarding this area or dimension). In it's most extreme form, scientism is the view that science has no boundaries, that in due time all human problems and all aspects of human endeavor will be dealt and solved by science alone. Stenmark proposes the expression scientific expansionism as a synonym of scientism.

Relevance to the science and religion debate

Gregory R Peterson remarks that "for many theologians and philosophers, scientism is among the greatest of intellectual sins". In fact, today the term is often used against vocal critics of religion-as-such. For instance, the philosopher of science Daniel Dennett responded to criticism of his book Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by saying that "when someone puts forward a scientific theory that [religious critics] really don't like, they just try to discredit it as 'scientism'". Meanwhile, in an essay that emphasizes parallels between scientism and traditional religious movements, The Skeptics Society founder Michael Shermer self-identifies as "scientistic" and defines the term as "a scientific worldview that encompasses natural explanations for all phenomena, eschews supernatural and paranormal speculations, and embraces empiricism and reason as the twin pillars of a philosophy of life appropriate for an Age of Science."

Alternate usages

Standard dictionary definitions include the following applications of the term "scientism":

• The use of the style, assumptions, techniques, and other attributes typically displayed by scientists.
• Methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to the natural scientist.
• An exaggerated trust in the efficacy of the methods of natural science applied to all areas of investigation, as in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities.
• The use of scientific or pseudoscientific language."
• The contention that the social sciences should be held to the somewhat stricter interpretation of scientific method used by the natural sciences.
• The belief that the social sciences are not sciences because they commonly do not hold to the somewhat stricter interpretation of scientific method used by the natural sciences.
• The belief that scientific knowledge is the foundation of all knowledge and that, consequently, scientific argument should always be weighted more heavily than other forms of knowledge, particularly those which are not yet well described or justified from within the rational framework, or whose description fails to present itself in the course of a debate against a scientific argument. It can be contrasted by doctrines like historicism, which hold that there are certain "unknowable" truths.
• As a form of dogma: "In essence, scientism sees science as the absolute and only justifiable access to the truth."

See also

Antiscience Antireductionism Conflict thesis Mary Midgley Panglossianism Philosophy of science

Positivism Pseudoscience Pseudoskepticism Scientistic materialism Technologism Techno-utopianism

Philosophy Portal

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Aeschliman, Michael D. The Restitution of Man: C.S. Lewis and the Case against Scientism. Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 1983. ISBN 0802819508 ISBN 9780802819505
• Bannister, Robert C. Sociology and Scientism: The American Quest for Objectivity, 1880-1940. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987. ISBN 0807817333 ISBN 9780807817339
• Haack, Susan. Defending Science—Within Reason: Between Scientism and Cynicism. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2003. ISBN 1591021170 ISBN 9781591021179
• Olafson, Frederick A. Naturalism and the Human Condition: Against Scientism. London: Routledge, 2001. ISBN 0415252598 ISBN 9780415252591 ISBN 0415252601 ISBN 9780415252607
• Postman, Neil. Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. ISBN 0679745408 ISBN 9780679745402
• Schoeck, Helmut, and James W. Wiggins. Scientism and Values. Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand, 1960.
• Sorell, Tom. Scientism: Philosophy and the Infatuation with Science. International library of philosophy. London: Routledge, 1991. ISBN 0415033993 ISBN 9780415033992
• Stenmark, Mikael. Scientism: Science, Ethics, and Religion. Ashgate science and religion series. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001. ISBN 0754604454 ISBN 9780754604457 ISBN 0754604462 ISBN 9780754604464

External links

• Vladislav S. Olkhovsky. How science correlates to Christianity, atheistic scientism, and New Age mysticism, Scientific Centre "Institute for Nuclear Research," Kiev-252028, Ukraine. Retrieved August 3, 2007.
• Henry F. Schaefer III. C. S. Lewis: Science and Scientism, C. S. Lewis Society. Retrieved August 3, 2007.

General Philosophy Sources

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
• The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
• Philosophy Sources on Internet EpistemeLinks. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
• Guide to Philosophy on the Internet. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
• Paideia Project Online. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
• Project Gutenberg. Retrieved August 2, 2007.

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