Scientism

Scientism is a concept that states that the truth about the universe and everything in it can be found exclusively through the application of science. Those who accept this concept believe that science can fully explain many subjects that are commonly considered to be within the realm of philosophy, morality, ethics, and religion. Adherents of scientism apply only the principles of science, such as the scientific method and empiricism—or requiring tests and repeatable proofs—to all efforts to understand and explain the world. Opponents of scientism say that this approach can lead to the assumption that science is infallible and cause people to accept as truth things that are later shown to be in error.

Background

The idea that science alone can address life's questions has its origins in the seventeenth century and what is known as the Scientific Revolution. Scholars and luminaries such as Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, and René Descartes endorsed the use of science to solve life's mysteries instead of relying on philosophical or theological principles. These men and others who held similar viewpoints believed that instead of waiting for a more perfect afterlife or finding some meaning in the struggles of this world, as religious and philosophical viewpoints did, they could use science to solve problems and bring about better conditions in the present.

This concept was not yet called scientism, but it had an important impact on the world. It validated and increased the importance of scientific studies and the importance of reason and logic. It also had the side effect of making the arts and the study of history seemingly less important.

This emphasis on logic and reason and minimization of the value of creative pursuits continued into the eighteenth century and the Age of Enlightenment. Scientists worked to collect scientific knowledge and to promote an emphasis on its value in explaining everything from natural disasters to human behavior. Science even began to influence faith as various religious beliefs emerged, such as deism—a belief that God set the world in motion and has since avoided any interference by attempting to influence ongoing events—and materialism—the belief that the events that happen in the world are the result of the interaction of the things in the world, without intervention from a divine being.

While the nineteenth century saw the Enlightenment give way to Romanticism and its renewed emphasis on the arts, scientism maintained a significant following. Nineteenth-century French philosopher Auguste Comte promoted a form of scientism known as positivism. His theory held that only information that can be gathered through the senses is of any value in understanding how the world works. Comte contended that any theological or religious approach to the world is simply one of three stages people experience on the way to acquiring true understanding. He believed that eventually, all such thoughts would be abandoned as products of the imagination in favor of scientific truths.

Positivism continued to be a force in the intellectual world in the twentieth century. Many of its proponents endorsed a form known as logical positivism, which emphasizes the logic and reason of mathematics and science as the highest form of understanding; if it cannot be proven mathematically or scientifically, it is not relevant to understanding the world. It is from these roots that the concept now known as scientism arose.

Overview

The word scientism is derived from the word science, an Old French word with roots in the Latin word scire, meaning "to know." The earliest recorded use of the term scientism came around 1875 to 1880, when it was used simply to mean the practices and techniques used by scientists. Over time, the word was used to refer to a preference for using these methods over all others in understanding all aspects of the universe, including all functions and behaviors of nature and human beings.

While scientism is drawn from science, it is still very different from it in practice. The pursuit of pure science requires scientists to suspend their own personal beliefs and go where the evidence takes them as they work to understand some aspect of the world. Scientism starts from a belief that nothing can be supernatural or based on anything other than reason, logic, and things that are observable by the senses. It, therefore, excludes certain aspects of the human mind from involvement in the investigative process.

Some opponents note this can be seen as similar to the earliest human beliefs that the Earth was flat; this was accepted as true because logic, based on the flat surfaces people could see around them, indicated that the Earth was flat. However, it was human imagination and the desire to see what the end of the world looked like that drove some to sail out onto the seemingly flat ocean and risk falling off the flat world that eventually brought the scientific discovery that the Earth is round.

In the twenty-first century, some continue to put an emphasis on finding scientific explanations for everything in the world to the exclusion of any application of religion, philosophy, creativity, or faith. Some experts question the wisdom of this approach. They note that rather than dismissing faith, adherents of scientism are substituting faith in the infallibility of science for faith in a deity. They assert that instead of remaining open to possibilities that could lead to new discoveries, scientism points to itself as the ultimate authority. They believe its adherents state, essentially, "science says so," in much the same way that religious followers point to holy texts as truth. This can be a problem, particularly when the science turns out to have been mistaken, either because of some flaw in the process or because new technology reveals previously unknown facts. Some opponents also note that in some instances, science should be tempered by other factors, such as morality or ethics. Other critics contend that the metaphysical understandings of scientism, developed hundreds of years ago, have evolved, and it is necessary to distinguish between scientism as a philosophy and science as a method. Into the mid-2020s, discussions of scientism have centered around discussions of artificial intelligence, neuroscientific reductionism, and transhumanism.

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