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What’s Wrong With Scientism?
The word “scientism” is nearly always used as a term of abuse. So can it be defended in any way?
“Worshipping science doesn’t do anyone any good, especially to science.” — Massimo Pigliucci
The German logical positivist Rudolf Carnap once stated that “there is no question whose answer is in principle unattainable by science”. So if the argument is that some answers aren’t attainable by science, then by what discipline, philosophy, theory, domain, or group/person are they attainable? Similarly, if the sciences can’t answer the “why questions”, then which disciplines or domains can do so?
Let’s just say that the sciences can’t give us answers to some — or even many — questions. That may be because there can’t be answers to these questions (at least not conclusive answers). The sciences may still help with data, arguments, evidence, facts, etc. The problem is that these things alone may still never provide an answer.
This is the reason why the sciences may have a problem with providing answers to certain questions. Again, this isn’t because the questions (or their answers) “transcend science”. It’s because, in a strong sense, there are no answers at all. Thus, it’s because there are no answers at…
