The Great Dome at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cScientism is the belief that all valid knowledge is science. \u00a0Scientism says, or at least implicitly assumes, that rational knowledge is scientific, and everything else that claims the status of knowledge is just superstition, irrationality, emotion, or nonsense.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cThe purpose of this book is to show the pervasiveness of the doctrine of scientism; to explore its coherence, and consequences; and to show that it must be repudiated, both to make sense of a vast range of non-scientific human endeavor, and also for science itself. \u00a0One of the conflicts that is most visible in current culture is between scientism and religion. \u00a0But the overall confrontation is not just with religious faith, prominent though that part of the debate may be. \u00a0Religious belief is not at all unique in being an unscientific knowledge. \u00a0On the contrary, I shall argue that there are many important beliefs, secular as well as religious, which are justified and rational, but not scientific. \u00a0And if that is so, then scientism is a ghastly intellectual mistake.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cBut how could it have come about that this mistake is so widespread, if it is a mistake? \u00a0The underlying reason is that scientism is confused with science. \u00a0This confusion is commonplace in many, many popularizations of science. \u00a0Scientists of considerable reputation speak with authority and understanding (but rarely modesty) about the knowledge and technology that science has brought; and frequently they introduce into their explanations, without acknowledging it, non-scientific assumptions, unjustified extrapolations, philosophy and metaphysics either based on or promoting scientism. \u00a0It is natural then, for readers, particularly those without inside knowledge of science, to assume that science and scientism are one and the same. \u00a0After all, many leading scientists, and science popularizers, speak and act as if they are. \u00a0A major strand within the community of science thus directly promotes this confusion. . . .<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nIn so far as scientism is an overarching world-view, it is fair to regard it as essentially a religious position. \u00a0Its advocates are unhappy with such an assertion, and argue that because scientism does not entail the belief in the supernatural, and does not entail ceremonials and rituals, it cannot be regarded as religion. \u00a0But that is hair-splitting. \u00a0There are religions that don\u2019t involve a belief in God, and religions that don\u2019t require participation in ceremonies. \u00a0What\u2019s more, as we will see, several of the historic forms that scientism has taken actually do<\/em> involve ceremonials and rituals of religious intent. \u00a0In any case, the key aspect of religious conviction that scientism shares with most organized religions is that it offers a comprehensive principle or belief, which itself cannot be proved (certainly not scientifically proved) but which serves to organize our understanding and guide our actions.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n(Ian Hutchinson, Monopolizing Knowledge<\/em> [Belmont, MA: Fias Publishing, 2011], 1-3)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr. Ian H. Hutchinson is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a\u00a0primary research interest in plasma physics.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cScientism is the belief that all valid knowledge is science. \u00a0Scientism says, or at least implicitly assumes, that rational knowledge is scientific, and everything else that claims the status of knowledge is just superstition, irrationality, emotion, or nonsense. \u201cThe purpose of this book is to show the pervasiveness of the doctrine of scientism; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"MIT's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/10\/800px-MIT_Dome_night1_Edit.jpg\")
<\/a>