Scientism: Its Nature and Challenges

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Science and Religion, Institute for Science and Technology Studies, Shahid Beheshti University

10.30465/ps.2026.54577.1832
Abstract
This research offers a critical analysis of Scientism as an epistemological stance in which science is elevated from a means of understanding nature to the ultimate criterion of all truth. The central problem is that scientism, by extending beyond the methodological limits of the empirical sciences, claims epistemic exclusivity and fundamentally calls into question the domains of metaphysics, ethics, religion, and the humanities. The article’s main finding is that scientism is realized at three levels: (1) scientific naturalism, which reduces reality to observable nature; (2) methodological exclusivism, which regards only the method of the natural sciences as valid for acquiring knowledge; and (3) scientific Imperialism, which sees science as the sole authority capable of answering all human questions. It is shown that these levels rest on three pillars: reductionism(reducing complex phenomena to physical components), Darwinism (biological explanation of all behaviors and beliefs), and the naturalization of normativity (reducing ethics and values to evolutionary processes). The study further shows that the consequences of scientism are chain-like: it begins with the denial of metaphysics and theology, leads to the erosion of the foundations of normative ethics, and ultimately ends in the denial of human distinctiveness from nature and the collapse of the humanities. In the end, the article’s key conclusion is that scientism is not merely an epistemological error, but a path from the denial of God to the denial of human beings—a trajectory that threatens the philosophical, ethical, and anthropological foundations of civilization.

Keywords

Subjects