scientism

American  

[sahy-uhn-tiz-uhm] / ˈsaɪ ənˌtɪz əm /

noun

1. the style, assumptions, techniques, practices, etc., typifying or regarded as typifying scientists.

2. 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.

3. scientific or pseudoscientific language.

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scientism British  

/ ˈsaɪənˌtɪzəm /

noun

1. the application of, or belief in, the scientific method

2. the uncritical application of scientific or quasi-scientific methods to inappropriate fields of study or investigation

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Other Word Forms

• scientistic
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of scientism

First recorded in 1875–80; scient(ist) + -ism

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scientism

Pope Leo warns repeatedly against both economism and scientism: the temptation to reduce human beings to market functions or material processes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026

“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

There’s also a difference between scientism and science.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 17, 2019

That statement might have been the high water mark of scientism and its corollaries, materialism and reductionism.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 7, 2019

We are living in the age of scientism and, in the case of its true sons and daughters, only scientifically demonstrated facts count in any argumentation.

From Communism and Christianism Analyzed and Contrasted from the Marxian and Darwinian Points of View by William Montgomery Brown