Scientism
The term scientism is a relatively newly coined word that refers to certain epistemologies based on science. The word has several different meanings:
- Scientism is used to refer to the attitude and method of the typical natural scientist and/or to refer to the belief that all fields of inquiry should be subject to (and can ultimately be understood by) standard scientific methods of investigation.[1]. It can be contrasted by doctrines like historicism which hold that there are certain "unknowable" truths. (Source for definition: The American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000)
- This viewpoint is typified by comments such as "Scientific research has demonstrated that substance x causes cancer in human"
- As a form of dogma: "In essence, scientism sees science as the absolute and only justifiable access to the truth." [2]
- Scientism can mean the values of humanism and Enlightenment informed by science. In this context, scientism is "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". (Source: Michael Shermer, The Shamans of Scientism, Scientific American, 2002)
- Scientism may also refer to the way in which Karl Marx appropriated science as a justification for his theories, and how science replaced religion in Marxist communism.
- Scientism can be used as a pejorative term, typically by those who reject the assertion that science is universally applicable to all phenomena. Those who use the term in a derogatory matter seek to imply a "fetishization" of science, and an attitude similar to that of religious fundamentalists towards the universality of the scientific method.
Scientism is typically seen, when used in its pejorative sense, as being a term deployed from an anti-science standpoint, although those who have used it in this way include some who in fact claim to be supporters of science who are merely proposing a less reductionist view of science (although the term 'reductionism' is also often used in the same pejorative way as scientism in this context).
'Scientism' may be used to imply an ignorance (or denial) of a relationship/disjunction between metaphysical and natural phenomena. This sense of the term comes close to Hannah Arendt's use of it in The Origins of Totalitarianism; in her view, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany had made the human condition a matter of scientific exactitude, and thus otherwise impossible moral or ethical questions (such as, "Can a man be worthless? And if so, can we euthanize him?") are easily resolved within the internally-consistent "scientific" methods of the state. In other words, the inhuman aspects of such totalitarian states cannot be said to be entirely unrelated to their adherence to science as the ultimate arbiter of value.
See also
- Philosophy of science
- Scientific method
- Panglossianism
- Pathological Skepticism
- Scientistic Materialism
- Scientistic
References
- "Science, Scientism, and Anti-Science in the Age of Preposterism", Susan Haack, Skeptical Inquier Magazine, 1997.
- Sandra Harding, "Who Knows? Identities and Feminist Epistemology", in Joan E. Hartman and Ellen Messer-Davidow, eds., (En)gendering Knowledge, University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 1991, p. 109.
- F.A. Hayek, The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason, Glencoe: The Free Press, 1952.
External links
- "Is Science Killing the soul?" Time Out New York (Edge Foundation, Inc.). 1999.
- A discussion between Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins
- Dawkins, Richard, "Is Science a Religion?" The Humanist. January/February 1997.
- Newman, Nathan, "Big Pharma, Bad Science". The Nation. July 25, 2002.
- "The Shamans of Scientism" by Michael Shermer, Scientific American, June, 2002