Scientism is a theory that maintains that knowledge is only valid when it is obtained through scientific practice . Also mentioned as scientism , it is a position that promotes the application of the scientific method and the development of empirical sciences.
For scientism, the inductive method that characterizes the natural sciences is the indicated path for the generation of knowledge. In fact, scientism maintains that only science can offer an accurate description of reality beyond any perspective.
It is common for scientism to be associated with positivism . This current of thought only recognizes scientific knowledge as valid, which arises exclusively from the scientific method.
The origin of scientism is linked to the Enlightenment and its confrontation with its opponents. The enlightened were convinced about the predominant role that science had to occupy in society, which made the position of scientism indispensable to promote the construction of valid knowledge and, by extension, to promote progress.
Traditionally, society instills in us that scientific knowledge is the most reliable, therefore discrediting any other source of knowledge , especially in the field of the humanities: religious, philosophical, etc. This leads us to grow up in a world where only the bravest dare to question science with postulates from this last group, since most people will laugh at them mercilessly.
However, not everything is black or white. There are scientists who oppose this rigidity, and in particular scientism. Such is the case of Paul Feyerabend , a philosopher of science born in 1924 in Vienna and died in 1994 in Zurich. For him, there are no methodological rules that are exempt from exceptions or that serve to govern the advancement of science, since he ensures that it cannot be tied to universal or fixed norms.
This is in the context of epistemological anarchism , a theory that Feyerabend developed to support his ideas regarding the view we should have of science. In fact, he points out that scientism is harmful to it, because it does not allow it to adapt to the context, locking it in a series of laws that are impossible to change. If a single immovable methodology is established, science cannot develop.
Feyerabend also said that science carries anarchy in its essence, so that in order to evolve it cannot be tied to a series of fixed rules or to the thinking of a closed group of people. He accused the scientific community of presenting its knowledge in a simple and boring way, always tinged with an inflexibility that should not be associated with them.
It is important to keep in mind that the notion of scientism is also used in a derogatory way. In this case, the term refers to the tendency to give exaggerated value to scientific knowledge or to those that are presented as such.
Scientism, in this framework, is associated with a supposed inappropriate use of scientific postulates or the application of science in a field where, in reality, it cannot be applied. Many times the accusation of scientism comes from religious groups or those who defend pseudoscience .
We understand the concept of pseudoscience (which can also be written pseudoscience ) as the practice, belief or statement that is presented as part of science, that is, as one or more facts that can be proven through practice, although in reality it is not So. Generally, any statement that is imprecise, exaggerated (that is, bordering on the mystical or magical), or that contains points that contradict each other, is accused of pseudoscience.