Bronze-level articleScientism

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*[[Taylorism]], or "Scientific Management."
 
*[[Taylorism]], or "Scientific Management."
 
*Use of [[MBTI|questionable personality tests]] in business.
 
*Use of [[MBTI|questionable personality tests]] in business.
 
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*Most pop [[evolutionary psychology]]
 
Unfortunately (particularly in the humanities) it gets mixed into the crank usage when someone is told their favourite thing is actually full of shit.
 
Unfortunately (particularly in the humanities) it gets mixed into the crank usage when someone is told their favourite thing is actually full of shit.
  
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*[http://www.skepdic.com/scientism.html Entry in the Skeptic's Dictionary]
 
*[http://www.skepdic.com/scientism.html Entry in the Skeptic's Dictionary]
 
*[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-shamans-of-scientism The Shamans of Scientism], [[Michael Shermer]]
 
*[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-shamans-of-scientism The Shamans of Scientism], [[Michael Shermer]]
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*[http://ahotcupofjoe.net/2006/02/does-scientism-exist/ Does Scientism Exist?] A Hot Cup of Joe
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*[http://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2009/12/wisdom-from-putnam-on-science-and-scientism.html Wisdom from Putnam on Science and Scientism], Maverick Philosopher
  
 
==Footnotes==
 
==Footnotes==

Revision as of 20:08, 11 November 2011

Science
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Philosophy of science
It's an all-purpose, wild-card smear...It's the last refuge of the sceptic. When someone puts forward a scientific theory that they really don't like, they just try to discredit it as 'scientism'.
Daniel Dennett[1]

Scientism is a widely abused term to refer to science and attitudes associated with science.

The non-pejorative, and therefore boring, sense of the term denotes the "methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to the natural scientist."[2][3] This meaning is hardly seen in the wild.

The pejorative sense, in which it is a general-purpose snarl word, is the one you will see in action. It means (a) believing science works (b) that this is bad (c) because the speaker's personal ox has been gored.

Contents

Usage by cranks

While the refusal to acknowledge the real limitations of the scientific method is a legitimate concern, the term is frequently bandied about by cranks of all stripes in order to hand-wave any scientific evidence that might go against their ideology:

Scientism assumes that science is the controlling reality about life, so anything that can be validated scientifically ought to be done. Other things are subjective fantasy—like love, beauty, good, evil, conscience, ethics.
[4]
The scientism practiced by devotees of Darwinian evolution, however, is not science, but simply a secular religious worship masquerading as science. In Darwinian scientism no free inquiry, no examination of evidence will be permitted. The gods of secularism have revealed the dogma of social justice, which necessitates moral relativism based on the secular theory of Darwinian evolution, and anyone revealing inconvenient, contradictory facts must be destroyed.
[5]
One way to reject scientism is to combine scientific reality checks with faith. When we build and maintain a Christian worldview — a view of the world, used for living in the world — based on the Bible, we believe that reality includes what we see and also what we don't see. For example, a coroner might say, "During my 45 years of experience, I have observed that dead people always remain dead, they are never resurrected back to life, so (based on this scientific reality check) if you want to be scientific then you should reject Biblical claims for the resurrection of Jesus." But this observation is not evidence against divine action, if God's common actions are not obvious and His obvious actions are not common. During the history recorded in the Bible, many millions of people died, but only seven were brought back to life: two in the Old Testament (by Elijah & Elisha) and five in the New Testament (two by Jesus, one of Jesus, and by Peter & Paul). Even though God's actions are occasionally miraculous, usually God chooses to act in ways that are natural, not miraculous
[6]

Sensible usage

"Scientism" is characterized by an overzealous application of simplistic methodology and, especially in the social sciences, the logical fallacy of reification, in which an abstract metric is treated as "real." It also tends to be accompanied by loads of sciencey technobabble. Here are some examples of widespread scientism:

Unfortunately (particularly in the humanities) it gets mixed into the crank usage when someone is told their favourite thing is actually full of shit.

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. When it comes to facts and explanations of facts, science is the only game in town, New Statesman
  2. Merriam-Webster - Scientism
  3. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosopy - The Social Dimensions of Scientific Knowledge
  4. http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/BibleStudyAndTheology/perspectives/Colson_Proper_Science.aspx
  5. http://www.thomasbrewton.com/index.php/weblog/weblog_printerFriendly/225/
  6. http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/science/faith-science.htm
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