scientism

Scientism is the belief that science is the primary or exclusive source of knowledge about the world. In its broad form, it holds that the natural sciences provide the best, or even the sole, method for understanding reality and that other disciplines should be judged by their ability to fit scientific explanations. Some formulations extend scientific methods to all questions, including ethics, aesthetics, and meaning.

Distinctions are often made between methodological naturalism—the view that scientific inquiry seeks natural explanations for natural phenomena—and scientism, which claims that science can or should answer all questions. Scientism is frequently discussed as a worldview or rhetorical stance rather than a neutral methodological position, and it is commonly expressed in pejorative terms by critics who see it as overreaching beyond the evidence.

Historically, affinities with Enlightenment rationalism, positivism, and later scientific naturalism have shaped discussions of scientism. The term is typically used to critique extensions of scientific authority into domains traditionally explored by philosophy, religion, or the humanities. Some proponents argue that science offers the most reliable knowledge and that non-scientific claims should be evaluated by empirical adequacy, while acknowledging current limits of science.

Critics contend that scientism overgeneralizes the reach of science, downplays the legitimacy of non-empirical inquiry, and reduces complex human values to contingent naturalistic explanations. They argue that meaning, purpose, and normative questions often require philosophical, ethical, or theological frameworks that science alone cannot provide. In contemporary discourse, scientism informs debates about science education, public policy, and the interpretation of scientific findings within broader cultural and ethical contexts.