Name: Episode 58: The Peak of Scientism
Uploaded: 2017-09-25T18:52:54.910Z
Duration: 5 min 20 s

Episode 58.

The peak of Scientism appears in the middle of the 20th century,

and there's no better example of someone who embraces scientism than Herbert Feigl.

His paper entitled, 'The Scientific Outlook: Naturalism & Humanism' in 1949,

is the first paper in a famous 800 page volume on the Philosophy of Science.

And in this volume,

it also included three papers by Albert Einstein.

Note the term naturalism in the title of Feigl's paper.

To be more accurate,

he should've qualified it as 'Metaphysical Naturalism',

which defined simply means,

a dysteological world view conflated to science and of course, this is scientism.

Metaphysical naturalism must be distinguished from methodological naturalism,

which is the study of the physical world limited to nature and natural processes.

For example, when I enter the laboratory to practice science,

I am a methodological naturalist.

Feigl begins his paper by outlining the purpose.

He writes, "It is to dispel certain confusions and

misunderstandings between sciences and humanities."

Indeed, this is a fine goal.

Feigl then identifies the cause of the problem,

he contends that the humanities are largely ignorant of the nature of modern science and,

that the humanities hold a distorted view of the philosophical basis of the humanities.

Indeed, according to Feigl,

the people in the arts don't even understand their own academic discipline.

Feigl argues that there are two critical errors committed by the humanities.

The first is the seductive fallacy or the "something more" myth,

the humanities believed the existence of an irreducible spiritual element.

The second error is the reductive fallacy or the "nothing but" problem,

people in the humanities believe that science reduces the world into nothing but

molecules and they believe that science leads to no human values.

But, Feigl has values as you'll see.

In quote 14, Feigl further explains the problem.

Neither a philosophy of the "something more" nor

a philosophy of the "nothing but" will do for our time.

Only an approach that is resolutely guarded by the question: "What is what?"

will avoid reading mysteries into facts,

as well as refrain from impoverishing them by

reduction to something less than experience attests to them.

Or to put this another way,

Feigl is arguing that we must not introduce mysteries like religion into science.

Herbert Feigl then proposes a three part solution.

First, we need to reject pre-scientific thought patterns.

These include magic, miracles, theology, and metaphysics.

Do you see the problem?

Doesn't Feigl have a metaphysics?

Second, Feigl suggests that we must disengage human values from theology and metaphysics.

Again, do you see the problem?

Feigl is blind to the fact that he has his own metaphysics.

Quote 15 reveals to us exactly what he thinks of theology and metaphysics.

He says, "It is immature,

if not infantile trait of thinking.

It is for the tender minded and maladjusted individuals and it is largely emotive."

Etc., etc., etc.

I'm not sure academic trash talk like this is all that helpful.

The third part of Feigl solution,

is for us to synthesize the scientific attitude and human values.

In quote 16, he states,

"Mature mankind should be able to determine

its own values standards on the basis of needs,

wants and facts of the social condition of man."

In other words, humanity not God is the ultimate determiner of values.

Of course, this is humanistic ethics as we've seen previously.

And if we follow Feigl's solution for the humanities,

it will offer the achievement of intellectual adulthood and mature thinking.

In the last sentence of the paper,

he writes in quote 17,

"A scientific humanism emerges as a philosophy holding considerable promise for mankind.

If mankind will at all succeed in growing up."

It's worth pointing out that this demeaning remark for people,

especially religious people to grow up,

was common by scientism in the 1950s.

End of episode.

Episode 58: The Peak of Scientism

Science & Religion 101

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