Editing Scientism (section)

==Overview==
[[Francis Bacon]] has been viewed by some scholars as an early proponent of scientism,<ref name="Robinson Whitney Trepanier Corey 2019 p. 80">{{cite book | last1=Robinson | first1=S. | last2=Whitney | first2=D. | last3=Trepanier | first3=L. | last4=Corey | first4=D.D. | last5=Harter | first5=N.W. | last6=Havers | first6=G. | last7=Morrissey | first7=C.S. | last8= Segrest | first8=S.P. | display-authors= 3 | title=Eric Voegelin Today: Voegelin's Political Thought in the 21st Century | publisher=Lexington Books | series= Political Theory for Today | year=2019 | isbn=978-1-4985-9664-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xnahDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 | access-date=2023-02-11 | page=80 | via= Google Books}}</ref> but this is a modern assertion as Bacon was a devout [[Anglican]], writing in his Essays, "a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to [[atheism]], but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bacon |first=Francis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LdsAYAAACAAJ |title=The Essayes Or Counsels, Ciuill and Morall, of Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount St. Alban |date=1625 |publisher=Iohn Hauiland |language=en | via= Google Books}}</ref>

With respect to the [[philosophy of science]], the term ''scientism'' frequently implies a critique of the more extreme expressions of [[logical positivism]]<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Rey | first= Abel | title = Review of ''La Philosophie Moderne'' | journal = The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods |volume = 6 | issue= 2 |date = 1909 | pages = 51–3 | doi= 10.2307/2011609| jstor= 2011609 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | first = Abraham | last = Maslow| author-link= Abraham Maslow | quote = There are criticisms of orthodox, 19th Century scientism and I intend to continue with this enterprise | title = Toward a Psychology of Being | chapter = Preface | edition = 1st|year=1962}}</ref> and has been used by social scientists such as [[Friedrich Hayek]],<ref>{{cite book| first= Friedrich | last = Hayek | title = The Counter Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason | publisher = Liberty Fund | year = 1980}}</ref> philosophers of science such as [[Karl Popper]],<ref name="Popper-Hacohen">{{cite book |last = Hacohen|first = Malachi Haim| title = Karl Popper: the formative years, 1902–1945: politics and philosophy in interwar Vienna | date = 2002| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-0-521-89055-7}}</ref> and philosophers such as [[Mary Midgley]],<ref name="Beale2019">{{cite journal |last= Beale |first=Jonathan |date= January 2019 |title=Scientism and scientific imperialism |journal= [[International Journal of Philosophical Studies]] |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=73–102 |doi= 10.1080/09672559.2019.1565316 |s2cid= 171857595 |quote=There are also several philosophers, in addition to Wittgenstein, for whom anti-scientism is a leitmotif in their work, such as Mary Midgley and the later Hilary Putnam.}}</ref> the later [[Hilary Putnam]],<ref name="Beale2019" /><ref name="Putnam">{{cite book| last= Putnam| first= Hilary | title = Renewing Philosophy | url= https://archive.org/details/renewingphilosop0000putn| url-access= registration|date= 1992|publisher= Harvard University Press|location= Cambridge, Mass. |page= x| isbn= 9780674760936 }}</ref> and [[Tzvetan Todorov]]<ref>{{cite book| author-link= Tzvetan Todorov| last= Todorov| first= Tzvetan| title= The Imperfect Garden: the legacy of humanism| publisher=Princeton University Press| year= 2001| page=
20| quote= Scientism does not eliminate the will but decides that since the results of science are valid for everyone, this will must be something shared, not individual. In practice, the individual must submit to the collectivity, which 'knows' better than he does.}}</ref> to describe (for example) the dogmatic endorsement of scientific methods and the reduction of all [[knowledge]] to only that which is measured or [[Confirmationism|confirmatory]].<ref name="Outhwaite22">{{cite book| last = Outhwaite | first = William | orig-year = 1988 | title = Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers | publisher = Polity Press | edition = 2nd | date = 2009 | page = 22}}</ref>

More generally, scientism is often interpreted as science applied "in excess". This use of the term ''scientism'' has two senses:

* The improper use of science or scientific claims.{{Sfn | Peterson | 2003 | p = 753 | ps =: "the best way to understand the charge of scientism is as a kind of logical fallacy involving improper usage of science or scientific claims"}} This usage applies equally in contexts where science might not apply,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Martin |last=Ryder |year=2005 |title=Scientism |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics |editor-last=Mitcham |editor-first=Carl |volume=4 |location=Farmington Hills, Mich. |publisher=Macmillan Reference USA |pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofsc0000unse_k0a4/page/1735 1735–1736] |url=http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/~mryder/scientism_este.html |access-date=2007-07-05 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120630205732/http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/~mryder/scientism_este.html |archive-date=2012-06-30 |url-status=dead}}</ref> such as when the topic is perceived as beyond the scope of [[Scientific method|scientific inquiry]], and in contexts where there is insufficient [[empirical evidence]] to justify a scientific conclusion. It includes an excessive deference to the claims of scientists or an [[Critical thinking|uncritical]] eagerness to accept any result described as scientific. This can be a [[counterargument]] to [[argument from authority|appeals to scientific authority]]. It can also address attempts to apply natural science methods and claims of certainty to the social sciences, which Friedrich Hayek described in ''[[The Counter-Revolution of Science]]'' (1952) as being impossible, because those methods attempt to eliminate the "human factor", while social sciences (including his own topic of [[economics]]) mainly concern the study of [[praxeology|human action]].
* "The belief that the methods of natural science, or the categories and things recognized in natural science, form the only proper elements in any philosophical or other inquiry",<ref name = "ODP">{{cite encyclopedia |first= Simon |last= Blackburn |date= 2005 |encyclopedia= The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy | series = Oxford paperbacks |edition=2nd |publisher= Oxford University Press |isbn= 978-0-19-861013-7 |lccn= 2006271895 | url = https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofphil00simo/page/331 | title= Scientism |url-access= registration |pages= [https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofphil00simo/page/331 331–32] |quote= Scientism: Pejorative term for the belief that the methods of natural science, or the categories and things recognized in natural science, form the only proper elements in any philosophical or other inquiry.}}</ref> or that "science, and only science, describes the world as it is in itself, independent of perspective"<ref name= Putnam/> with a concomitant "elimination of the [[psychological]] [and [[spirituality|spiritual]]] dimensions of experience".<ref>{{cite web | first = Robert | last = Bannister | url = http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/rbannis1/AmCult/H47%2313.html | title = Behaviorism, Scientism and the Rise of The 'Expert'| year = 1998 | website= swarthmore.edu/SocSci/rbannis1/ |access-date = 2008-09-11 | archive-date = 2008-10-12 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081012060301/http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/rbannis1/AmCult/H47%2313.html | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last = Haack | first = Susan | date = 2003 | title = Defending Science Within Reason: Between Scientism and Cynicism | place = Amherst, New York| publisher = Prometheus Books}}</ref> Tom Sorell provides this definition: "Scientism is a matter of putting too high a value on natural science in comparison with other branches of learning or culture."<ref>{{cite book | last = Sorell | first = Thomas 'Tom' | title = Scientism: Philosophy and the Infatuation with Science | publisher = Routledge | date = 1994 | pages = 1ff}}</ref> Philosophers such as [[Alexander Rosenberg]] have also adopted "scientism" as a name for the opinion that science is the only reliable source of knowledge.<ref name = Rosenberg>{{cite book |last = Rosenberg|first = Alex| title = The Atheist's Guide to Reality| date = 2011| publisher = W. W. Norton| isbn = 978-0-393-34411-0}}</ref>

It is also sometimes used to describe the universal applicability of the scientific method, and the opinion that [[empirical science]] constitutes the most authoritative [[worldview]] or the most valuable part of human learning, sometimes to the complete exclusion of other opinions, such as [[history|historical]], philosophical, economic or cultural opinions. 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".<ref name= Bullock>{{cite encyclopedia |last= Quinton |first=Anthony |author-link= Anthony Quinton |date=1999 |title= Scientism |editor1-last=Bullock |editor1-first=Alan |editor1-link=Alan Bullock |editor2-last=Trombley |editor2-first= Stephen |editor2-link=Stephen Trombley |editor3-last=Lawrie |editor3-first=Alf |encyclopedia=The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought |edition=3rd |location=London |publisher= [[HarperCollins Publishers]] |pages= [https://archive.org/details/newfontanadictio0000unse/page/775 775] |isbn=0002558718 |oclc=45667833 |url=https://archive.org/details/newfontanadictio0000unse/page/775 |url-access=registration}}</ref> The term ''scientism'' is also used by historians, philosophers, and cultural critics to highlight the possible dangers of lapses towards excessive [[reductionism]] with respect to all topics of human knowledge.<ref>{{cite journal| first = Michael | last = Collins | title = A Critical Analysis of Competency-based Systems in Adult Education | journal = Adult Education Quarterly | date = March 20, 1983 | volume = 33 | number = 3 | pages = 174–83| doi = 10.1177/074171368303300305 | s2cid = 142438118 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal| first = Irwin | last = Chargaff | title = In Dispraise of Reductionism | journal = [[BioScience]] | volume = 47 | number = 11 |date= December 1997 | pages = 795–7 | doi= 10.2307/1313101| jstor = 1313101 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal| first = R Keith | last = Sawyer | title = Connecting Culture, Psychology and Biology: Essay Review on Inghilleri's From Subjective Experience to Cultural Change | journal = Human Development | volume = 43 | date = 2000 | pages = 56–59| doi = 10.1159/000022658 | s2cid = 145691908 }}</ref><ref name="The New Republic">{{cite magazine| last= Wieseltier| first= Leon| title= Crimes Against Humanities| url= https://newrepublic.com/article/114548/leon-wieseltier-responds-steven-pinkers-scientism|access-date= 21 December 2013| date= 4 September 2013| quote= His essay, a defense of "scientism," is a long exercise in assimilating humanistic inquiries into scientific ones. By the time Pinker is finished, the humanities are the handmaiden of the sciences, and dependent upon the sciences for their advance and even their survival.|magazine= [[The New Republic]]| archive-date= 27 October 2013| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131027190446/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114548/leon-wieseltier-responds-steven-pinkers-scientism|url-status= live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last= Lears|first= T.J. Jackson|title= Get Happy!!| date= 6 November 2013|url= http://www.thenation.com/article/177016/get-happy?page=full#|magazine= [[The Nation]] |access-date= 21 December 2013|quote= ...scientism is a revival of the nineteenth-century positivist faith that a reified "science" has discovered (or is about to discover) all the important truths about human life. Precise measurement and rigorous calculation, in this view, are the basis for finally settling enduring metaphysical and moral controversies—explaining consciousness and choice, replacing ambiguity with certainty.|archive-date= 13 November 2013|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131113000458/http://www.thenation.com/article/177016/get-happy?page=full|url-status= live}}</ref>

For [[social theorist]]s practising the tradition of [[Max Weber]], such as [[Jürgen Habermas]] and [[Max Horkheimer]], the concept of scientism relates significantly to the philosophy of [[positivism]], but also to the cultural [[rationalization (sociology)|rationalization]] for modern [[Western culture|Western civilization]].<ref name=Outhwaite22/><ref>{{cite book|last= Brunkhorst|first= Hauke|title= On Max Horkheimer: New Perspectives|date= 1995| publisher= The MIT Press|isbn= 978-0262522076|page= 74|editor= Seyla Benhabib|editor2= Wolfgang Bonss|editor3= John McCole|chapter= Dialectical Positivism of Happiness: Max Horkheimer's Materialist Deconstruction of Philosophy |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ab7QuxwoguEC&pg=PA67|access-date= 2020-01-29|archive-date= 2021-01-26| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210126110621/https://books.google.com/books?id=ab7QuxwoguEC&pg=PA67| url-status= live| via= Google Books}}</ref> [[Ernesto Sabato]], [[physicist]] and [[essayist]], wrote in his 1951 essay {{lang|es|Hombres y engranajes}} ("Man and mechanism") of the "superstition of science" as the most contradictory of all [[superstition]]s,<ref name="Sabato">{{Cite book |last=Sabato |first=Ernesto |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7eQLAAAAYAAJ |title=Hombres y engranajes |date=2003 |orig-year=1951 |publisher=Editorial Planeta / Seix Barral |isbn=978-950-731-378-3 |language=es |chapter=El Nuevo Fetichismo}}</ref> since this would be the "superstition that one should not be ''superstitious''". He wrote: "science had become a new magic and the man in the street believed in it the more the less he understood it".<ref name= "Sabato" />