scientism
Americannoun
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the style, assumptions, techniques, practices, etc., typifying or regarded as typifying scientists.
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the belief that the assumptions, methods of research, etc., of the physical and biological sciences are equally appropriate and essential to all other disciplines, including the humanities and the social sciences.
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scientific or pseudoscientific language.
noun
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the application of, or belief in, the scientific method
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the uncritical application of scientific or quasi-scientific methods to inappropriate fields of study or investigation
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of scientism
First recorded in 1875–80; scient(ist) + -ism
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“I think it’s dangerous to lean too far into scientism, which is when you see the world exclusively through the lens of whether something is backed by science,” O’Keefe said.
From Slate • Oct. 20, 2022
But his consilience project stems from excessive faith in science, or scientism.
From Scientific American • Jun. 25, 2021
Across the arc of the past 150 years, we can see both science and scientism shaping human identity in many ways.
From Nature • Oct. 7, 2019
But the two approaches are more closely related than today’s apostles of scientism often suggest.
From New York Times • Feb. 24, 2018
Their loadedness with variations, changes, uncontrollables, and our negative feelings about the implications of viewing human beings as predictable left the strict scientism of positivistic method wanting at this stage of man's knowing.
From Humanistic Nursing by Paterson, Josephine G.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
