Friday, October 10, 2014

The extreme position of scientism

Image by Sharka Todd

Article source: Wikipedia Scientism

Scientism is belief in the universal applicability of the scientific method and approach, and the view that physical science constitutes the most authoritative worldview or most valuable part of human learning to the exclusion of other viewpoints. It has been defined as "the view that the characteristic inductive methods of the natural sciences are the only source of genuine factual knowledge and, in particular, that they alone can yield true knowledge about man and society."

The term scientism frequently implies a critique of the more extreme expressions of logical positivism and has been used by social scientists such as Friedrich Hayekphilosophers of science such as Karl Popper,and philosophers such as Hilary Putnam and Tzvetan Todorov to describe the dogmatic endorsement of scientific methodology and the reduction of all knowledge to only that which is measurable "Scientism" has also been taken over as a name for the view that science is the only reliable source of knowledge by philosophers such as Alexander Rosenberg.

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Who is attracted to scientism?
by Sharka Todd

Scientism, like fundamentalist religion, appeals to those who require the illusion of certainty in their personal beliefs.   Such people, like the fundamentally religious, place their faith in authorities outside themselves and are distrustful of personal experience.  This makes "scientism-ists" ripe for manipulation by elites that are able to influence the scientific process by promoting one type of inquiry over another by the allocation of funds and the choice of leadership.

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