[MD] Science and Scientism

[markhsmit]

Dave said to Marsha:
Great find. Required listening for all if you want to try and understand the nature of the social and intellectual levels both historically and now. http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/science/index.html


dmb says:
I get "Ideas" as a podcast. It's a Canadian radio show and it's almost always good. Another really good one, if you're into intelligent conversations, is "To The Best of Our Knowledge". It comes from Wisconsin public radio and it's never bad. There are lots of good shows NPR and the BBC for folks with ipods or any kind of audio player. You can learn about scientism while you're doing the dishes. It's delicious for your brain.
As I understand it, "scientism" is the perspective that says the hard sciences produce the best kind of knowledge and that all other forms of knowledge fall short by various degrees. On a scale from one to ten, according to scientism, physics is a ten and rhetoric is a one. Biology gets a nine and literary criticism gets zip. Chemistry scores 9.5 and psychology gets a 4.5. You get the idea. In short, it puts the emphasis on "objective" truths and it thinks "subjective" things like morals and art are meaningless. For an extreme version, check out what the "eliminative materialists" are saying about beliefs, intentions and feelings. (There are none and never have been.) Regular old Positivism would be the prime example in philosophy but it's also a widespread, general attitude and a feature of our culture. 
Scientology is another thing entirely. That the perspective that says the best kind of knowledge comes from outer space and it is not the kind of knowledge that's gained through inquiry or experimentation. It just takes lots and lots of cash.
Yea, Scientology, don't get me started.  Sucks the marrow right out of you.
Mark






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