Title: What is Scientism? | American Association for the Advancement of Science
Headings: What is Scientism?
What is Scientism?
A History of Scientism
The Scientific Revolution
The Enlightenment
Positivism
Logical Positivism
Scientism of Today
Distinguishing Science from Scientism
NOTES

Content: Descartes and Bacon used particularly strong rhetoric to carve out space for their new methods. They claimed that by learning how the physical world worked, we could become “masters and possessors of nature.” ( 4) In doing so, humans could overcome hunger through innovations in agriculture, eliminate disease through medical research, and dramatically improve overall quality of life through technology and industry. Ultimately, science would save humans from unnecessary suffering and their self-destructive tendencies. And it promised to achieve these goals in this world, not the afterlife. It was a bold, prophetic vision. As this new method found great success, the specter of scientism began to emerge. Both Bacon and Descartes elevated the use of reason and logic by denigrating other human faculties such as creativity, memory, and imagination. Bacon’s classification of learning demoted poetry and history to second-class status. ( 5) Descartes’ rendering of the entire universe as a giant machine left little room for the arts or other forms of human expression.