Scientism and Its Rivals

Abstract

What is scientism and where and why does it differ from its rivals? The second aspect is crucial because, in assessing scientism, we also need to identify its rivals and the border areas between scientism and these rivals. If we reject one we need to know what alternatives there are and where there is overlap. This chapter offers answers to these questions and distinguishes between different types of scientism. It also suggests that liberal naturalism, humanism, social constructionism, religious naturalism, and theism are best understood as rivals to scientism, although that does not mean that they are on all accounts necessarily incompatible with scientism. It merely means that they contain elements that are in serious tension with the epistemology and ontology of scientism or its overall tendency to be deeply suspicious about everything in reality that cannot be described, understood, or explained by the natural sciences.

Is There an Alternative to Moderate Scientism?

“…The standpoint which Stenmark (2018) refers to as epistemic scientism can be regarded as different from the above understanding of scientism. According to Stenmark (2018), some scientists, philosophers, and thinkers (Rosenberg, 2011;Russell, 1978;Sellars, 1963) can be associated with the Organon F 29 (1) 2022: 128-164 claim that "The only kind of genuine knowledge we can have is the one provided by the sciences" (Stenmark, 2018, 63), or even with the more extreme position that "We are rationally entitled to believe only what is scientifically justified" (Stenmark, 2018, 65). There are many possible variations of this notion, which means that its postulates can take different shapes, depending on their author (Boghossian, 2006;Kitcher, 2008;Rosenberg, 2011).…”

“…One of the positions often associated with scientism is the view described by some authors as "scientific expansionism" (Stenmark, 2018) or "scientific imperialism" (Ladyman, 2018). According to this belief, the boundaries of science are far beyond what we think.…”

“…According to this belief, the boundaries of science are far beyond what we think. Usually, this means that science can answer a much larger number of questions; in particular, it can answer questions that we have not associated with scientific research so far (Stenmark, 2018). The above remarks typically concern problems in the field of law, literature, and politics, as well as philosophy, in its broader meaning (Haack, 2012).…”

“…The imperialist nature of scientism can be implemented in many ways. The first worthy of discussion is the reductionist version of scientism, or internal scientism, as Stenmark (2018) calls it. In proposing a specifically interpreted "scientization" of disciplines outside the natural sciences field, this view develops the idea behind scientific imperialism.…”

Delineating between scientism and science enthusiasm: Challenges in measuring scientism and the development of novel scale

“…Thus, scientism represents the trust that goes beyond what are currently considered to be the limits of science -it is a form of uncritical, theoretically unfounded trust in science. It is obvious that the term scientism encompasses different perspectives on science and scientific knowledge, which leads authors to recognize different types of scientism, such as methodological, ontological, epistemological, moral, etc (Peels, 2018;Stenmark, 2018). Thus, a person can hold one scientistic position, but not another, and still be considered a "scientizer".…”