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Scientism

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Scientism is an ideology which holds that science has primacy over other interpretations of life (e.g., religious, mythical, spiritual, or humanistic explanations). The term has also been applied to the view that natural sciences have primacy over other fields of inquiry such as social sciences.

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[edit] Meanings of scientism

Standard dictionary definitions include the following meanings:

  1. The use of the style, assumptions, techniques, and other attributes typically displayed by scientists.<ref>Random House Dictionary of the English Language. 1987.</ref>
  2. Methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to the natural scientist.<ref>Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. 1983.</ref>
  3. 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.<ref>Webster. 1983.</ref>
  • "Scientism is the use of scientific or pseudoscientific language."<ref>Webster. 1983. Definition #3 for Scientism.</ref>
  • Scientism is the contention that the social sciences should be held to the somewhat stricter interpretation of scientific method used by the natural sciences. <ref> Webster. 1983. Definition #2 for Scientism. </ref>
  • Scientism is the belief that the social sciences are not science because they commonly do not hold to the somewhat stricter interpretation of scientific method used by the natural sciences.<ref> Webster. 1983. Definition #2 for Scientism.</ref>
  • Scientism was a common ideology in the 19th and 20th centuries which places its trust only in scientific progress. See also positivism and social positivism.
  • Scientism is a 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. <ref> The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. Bartleby.com </ref> This viewpoint is typified by comments such as "Scientific research has demonstrated that substance x causes cancer in humans."
  • As a form of dogma: "In essence, scientism sees science as the absolute and only justifiable access to the truth."<ref>http://www.pbs.org/faithandreason/gengloss/sciism-body.html "Scientism"] PBS.org. Faith and Reason.</ref>
  • Scientism can also mean the couching of religious, untestable beliefs in the cloak of science. For example, if one believes that life extension will produce 1,000-year life spans within the next 20 years, such a belief may be couched in scientific ideology but actually lack the scientific basis of testing. Hence, "scientism" can also be taken to mean "science as religion."<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2/4322.asp One need not be a Christian apologist to understand that a scientifically untested idea framed as science but actually advocated in religious terms is a confusion and corruption of both. Notably, some scientism advocates have re-written the Book of Genesis in a science-fiction

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[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

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[edit] References

  • Luke Davidson (2000) 'The Fragilities of Scientism: Richard Dawkins and the Paranoid Idealization of Science', Science as Culture, 9 (2000), 167-199.
  • Haack, Susan (1997), "Science, Scientism, and Anti-Science in the Age of Preposterism", Skeptical Inquirer Magazine, Eprint
  • Harding, Sandra (1991), "Who Knows? Identities and Feminist Epistemology", in Joan E. Hartman and Ellen Messer-Davidow (eds.) (En)gendering Knowledge, University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN, p. 109.
  • Hayek, F.A. (1952), The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason, The Free Press, Glencoe, IL.
  • Schoeck, Helmut, and Wiggins, James W. (eds., 1960), Scientism and Values, D. Van Nostrand, Princeton, NJ.
  • Sorell, Tom (1994), Scientism: Philosophy and the Infatuation With Science, Routledge, London, UK.
  • Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, Unabridged (1987). Cited as "Random. House 1987."
  • Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, Unabridged (1950), W.A. Neilson, T.A. Knott, P.W. Carhart (eds.), G. & C. Merriam Company, Springfield, MA. Cited as (Webster 1950).
  • Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. 1983. Frederick C. Mish (ed.), Merriam–Webster Inc., Springfield, MA. Cited as "Webster. 1983."
  • Ziman, John (2000). Real Science: what it is, and what it means. Cambridge, Uk: Cambridge University Press.

[edit] External links

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