Rembrandt van Rijn, \u201cZelfportret\u201d (1658) \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I have occasionally used the term scientism<\/em> here on this blog.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some of my critics claim that, by scientism<\/em>, I mean science that has come to conclusions of which I disapprove, or that conflict with my religious beliefs.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t even remotely accurate.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mistaken science is still science.\u00a0 Unpleasant scientific discoveries are still scientific discoveries.<\/p>\n
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Scientism, as I use the term, isn\u2019t science at all<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s an ideological position about the scope and ability of science.\u00a0 It is, strictly speaking, metascientific.\u00a0 In at least some cases, one might say that it\u2019s parasitic upon science and that it attempts to wrap itself, quite illegitimately, in the mantle and prestige of science.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scientism claims that all questions can and should be answered by science, that all questions are, in the end, reducible to scientific questions.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But this is, fairly plainly, a proposition that cannot be established by science or tested scientifically.\u00a0 No soil sample will ever demonstrate that all questions can and should be answered by science.\u00a0 No principle of physics entails the conclusion that ethical quandaries are, in the end, resolvable by scrutinizing elementary particles.\u00a0 No amount of chemical analysis will prove or disprove the existence of God.\u00a0 Exact data on the functioning of Napoleon\u2019s vital organs, were such data available, wouldn\u2019t take us very far toward grasping his strategy at Austerlitz.\u00a0 And it isn\u2019t even remotely obvious that precise measurements of the depth and mineral composition of Rembrandt\u2019s paints would fundamentally affect our understanding of his 1658 Self Portrait<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yes, the material world around us is made of elementary particles.\u00a0 But that doesn\u2019t mean that particle physics displaces chemistry as a legitimate field of study.\u00a0 A significant subset of chemical activity occurs within living organisms.\u00a0 But that in no way entails the conclusion that biology\u2014including such subdisciplines as plant ecology and ichthyology\u2014must surrender its territory to chemists.\u00a0 Moreover, some of those living organisms are humans.\u00a0 But studies focused on humans and human activities\u2014in fields such as art history, anthropology, comparative literature, sociology, archaeology, history, economics, and psychology\u2014retain their legitimacy and their autonomy.\u00a0 While all human enterprises depend upon underlying biology, chemistry, and physics, they aren\u2019t reducible to biological processes, chemical reactions, or the behavior of quarks and gluons.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Plainly, scientism (in my view) is connected with reductionism.\u00a0 But another way of looking at it is to see it as a form of imperialism.\u00a0 As the old saw has it, to a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail.\u00a0 So, too, an occasional scientist will insist that his discipline offers the key to the entire universe.\u00a0 (Attempts to seize moral behavior and ethical theory for evolutionary biology seem a fairly obvious example of this.)\u00a0 More often, though\u2014at least in my experience\u2014it isn\u2019t scientists who engage in the most flagrant examples of scientism.\u00a0 They\u2019re too busy counting caribou in the Canadian Rockies, monitoring fruit fly genetics, peering into telescopes, and clambering about in the Grand Canyon\u2014that is, doing actual science\u2014to engage in such fantasies.\u00a0 Rather, it\u2019s typically non-scientists, amateurs, who, in their understandable enthusiasm for the achievements of science and the marvels of technology, go much too far.\u00a0 Hammers are very useful tools, but they\u2019re not equally useful for all purposes.\u00a0 Science is powerful, but its power comes, to a large extent, from its precise and limited focus.\u00a0 Properly understood, it doesn\u2019t claim to be able to do all things\u2014and it\u2019s exactly that modesty that enables it to do certain things extremely well.<\/p>\n
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Posted from Fairfax, Virginia<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I have occasionally used the term scientism here on this blog. \u00a0 Some of my critics claim that, by scientism, I mean science that has come to conclusions of which I disapprove, or that conflict with my religious beliefs. \u00a0 This isn\u2019t even remotely accurate. \u00a0 Mistaken science is still science.\u00a0 Unpleasant scientific […]<\/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-63454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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