philosophy

Scientism is closely related to the word ‘Science’. So before we begin, like good philosophers, we need to nail down some working definitions of Science vs Scientism.

What is science, then?

Science has distinctive features. Foremost, any claim about reality that wishes to count as science needs to be observable, measurable, quantifiable, and /or reducible to a formula or number. Scientific claims need to be ‘repeatable’/ reproducible in terms of being verified by experiment. That is science per se.

Now, what is scientism?

Think of scientism as a philosophy (not as science). Scientism is the belief that science is the only valid method of knowing. Hence philosophy which bases its claims on reason/logic is often problematic for those who adhere to Scientism. Moreover, the claims of religion, which are unverifiable in scientific terms is mostly dismissed in terms of conveying truth. In sum, if any given claim about reality cannot be verified via reproducible experiment then that claim does not make sense, it is literally, non-sense.

Scientism, we should understand, is not a finding of science but a philosophical view of reality that claims that if something cannot be detected by our senses or the instruments that extend of our senses then that claim cannot count as science (or truth). Again, Scientism implies that scientific verification is the only valid form of knowledge; everything else is merely superstition, myth or some form of popular misconception. This view, unfortunately, dismisses values that are near and dear to many millions of human beings.