Comments on: If you buy into scientism, does that make you a scientist?

By: Julian West

Julian West — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 12:21:43 +0000

Science cannot tell us what we value or what we should value

Surely it is the belief that science can tell us what to value that can legitimately be called scientism. Of course there is considerable misuse of the term, but that doesn’t invalidate the concept.

By: Barbara Drescher

Barbara Drescher — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 22:57:06 +0000

I admit that I got lazy and Googled when I couldn’t immediately find the critiques that I’d read (some of which were unconvincing, but others were excellent). I’ll replace Douthat’s with Massimo’s. Thanks for the reminder that he wrote one!

By: SocraticGadfly

SocraticGadfly — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 22:38:19 +0000

Actually, beyond your first two links, the best critique of Pinker I’ve seen (and in other pieces, of scientism in general) is by Massimo. In fact, Douthat’s is kind of weak tea, actually.