scientism

English

Etymology

From science +‎ -ism.

Noun

scientism (countable and uncountable, plural scientisms)

1. The belief that the scientific method and the assumptions and research methods of the physical sciences are applicable to all other disciplines (such as the humanities and social sciences), or that those other disciplines are not as valuable.
   • 1964, Cross Currents of Psychiatry and Catholic Morality, page 351:

     Finally, with good reason, this psychology aims to be a psychology of a purely empiriological type. It is pervaded and overwhelmed on every side, however, by a pseudometaphysics of the most vulgar character, which Freud is all the less anxious to dispense iwth as he imagines he has no philosophy or metaphysics at all. I say pseudometaphysics of the most vulgar type, because it combines all the prejudices of deterministic, mechanistic scientism with all the prejudices of irrationalism.

   • 2007, Ted Cabal, The Apologetics Study Bible, B&H Publishing Group, →ISBN:

     This claim, espoused by scientific naturalists, is called scientism, the view that science is the paradigm of truth and rationality. There are two forms of scientism: strong and weak. Strong scientism […]

   • 2008, Peter Meusburger, Michael Welker, Edgar Wunder, Clashes of Knowledge: Orthodoxies and Heterodoxies in Science and Religion, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 111:

     This is the view of scientism. The historical roots of scientism can probably be traced to the Enlightenment with its ideology of progress and perfectibility. Perhaps its best-known historical advocate is the French social philosopher Auguste […]

   • 2013, William Outhwaite, Habermas: A Critical Introduction, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

     Habermas's work of the middle and late 1960s is centrally concerned with the philosophical and sociological issues raised by scientism, the reduction of all knowledge to that furnished by the empirical sciences, where these are conceived as […]

   • 2013, David Held, Introduction to Critical Theory: Horkheimer to Habermas, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

     'Scientism means ... that we no longer understand science as one form of possible knowledge, but rather identify knowledge with science.' Habermas's critique of scientism focuses on its relation to positivism, since positivism provides […]

   • 2014, Raymond Tallis, Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity, Routledge, →ISBN, page 15:

     First, I want to make clear that what I am attacking is not science but scientism: the mistaken belief that the natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology and their derivatives) can or will give a complete description and even explanation of […]

2. The belief that all truth is exclusively discovered through science.

Derived terms

• scientistic

Translations

belief

• Catalan: cientisme m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 唯科學主義 / 唯科学主义 (wéikēxuézhǔyì), 科學主義 / 科学主义 (zh) (kēxuézhǔyì), 科學至上主義 / 科学至上主义 (kēxuézhìshàngzhǔyì)

• Dutch: sciëntisme n
• Finnish: skientismi (fi)
• French: scientisme (fr) m
• Galician: cientifismo (gl) m
• German: Szientismus (de) m
• Greek: επιστημονισμός (el) m (epistimonismós)
• Irish: eolaíochas m
• Italian: scientismo (it) m
• Polish: scjentyzm (pl) m
• Portuguese: cientificismo (pt) m
• Russian: сциенти́зм (ru) m (scijentízm)
• Welsh: gwyddonyddiaeth f

Further reading

• scientism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• incestism

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French scientisme.

Noun

scientism n (uncountable)

1. scientism

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	scientism	scientismul
genitive-dative	scientism	scientismului
vocative	scientismule