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Ten reasons to embrace scientism.
1Philosophy Department, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
|June 21, 2017
Summary
Scientism, the view that science is the only reliable source of knowledge, faces challenges. This paper argues only three specific reasons support a weaker, more tenable version of scientism.
Area of Science:
- Philosophy of Science
- Epistemology
Background:
- Scientism posits natural science as the sole reliable source of knowledge.
- Common sense belief sources like intuition, memory, and introspection are often contrasted with scientific findings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate ten arguments defending scientism.
- To determine which arguments plausibly support scientism.
- To propose a tenable formulation of scientism.
Main Methods:
- Critical analysis of ten distinct arguments for scientism.
- Examination of empirical evidence and logical coherence of common sense beliefs.
- Philosophical argumentation regarding the scope and limits of scientism.
Main Results:
- Only three of the ten discussed arguments for scientism hold significant evidential weight.
- These supporting arguments relate to debunking explanations, incoherences in common sense beliefs, and illusory beliefs from common sense sources.
- Many prevalent versions of scientism are not tenable under scrutiny.
Conclusions:
- A significantly weaker version of scientism is potentially tenable.
- The formulation of scientism must be revised to align with the limited supporting evidence.
- Future work should focus on defining the parameters of this weaker scientism.
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