چکیده:
علم جدید نقش منحصر بفرد و غیر قابل انکاری در شکلگیری تمدن جدید دارد. موفقیت این حوزه معرفتی بشر در حل مسائل معرفتی دامنه موضوعات خود و دستاوردهای عملی آن در بهبود وضع زندگی بشر، به تدریج، منجر به شکلگیری آموزهای گردید که به دنبال تعمیم مرزهای علم به سایر حوزههای معرفت یا زیست انسانی است. اصطلاحاً به این آموزه «علمگرایی» میگویند. هدف این مقاله به دست دادن تصویری روشن از مدعای علمگرایی، انواع مختلف آن و نسبت آن با سایر مفاهیم مرتبط میباشد. بدین منظور، در ابتدا تاریخچه تکوین این ایده مرور شده و پس از آن انواع مختلف آن بیان شده است؛ بحث از انواع علمگرایی با تعیین وجه جامع آن پایان یافته است. در گام بعدی، مفاهیم اصلی مرتبط با این آموزه فهرست شده و وجه مشترک میان سه مفهوم اصلی مرتبط با علمگرایی بیان شده است و نهایتاً مقاله با نسبتسنجی دو آموزه علمگرایی و طبیعیگرایی به پایان رسیده است.
Introduction: Modern science has a unique and undeniable role in
the formation of a new western civilization. The success of this
modern type of human inquiry in solving epistemological problems
within the scope of its subject matter and its practical achievements in
improving many aspects of human life gradually led to the formation
of a doctrine that seeks to extend the boundaries of science and the
scientific method to other fields of human knowledge or other aspects
of human life. This doctrine is called "scientism".
Method: The purpose of this article is to introduce a clear picture
or conceptual schema of the doctrine of scientism, distinguish its
different types clearly and ultimately propose an integrated or
comprehensive version of that doctrine. It is claimed that this task
only could be done completely by showing the relation of scientism
with other related concepts. These concepts together make a family
resemblance through which the claim of scientism could be
understood rightly. So some other doctrine like Naturalism,
Physicalism, Materialism, Reductionism, and Mechanism is also
described briefly and finally focused on the synthesis of epistemic
scientism and methodological naturalism.
Finding: According to the close correlation between scientism and
the modern notion of science, this paper begins with the history of the
generation and development of the idea of scientism and traces it back
to the 17th century when modern science was generated. Then
different types of scientism are formulated and the discussion of the
types of scientism was ended up with a comprehensive definition.
Epistemic scientism is declared as the comprehensive notion of
scientism which claims that any true knowledge or genuine
explanation should be gained through the method of science.
In the next step, the main concepts related to this doctrine are listed
and the similarities between them are stated, finally, naturalism
proposes as the most important and modified version of the idea lies
behind all these related concepts. So naturalism is analyzed carefully
and the two branches of naturalism (i.e. Methodological Naturalism
and Ontological or Metaphysical Naturalism) are distinguished and
discussed. It is claimed that the hardcore scientific method is restricted
by methodological naturalism that states the neutrality of scientific
explanation according to supernatural entities. Methodological
Naturalism takes the role of the regulatory principle for the scientific
method.
Conclusion: it is summed up that scientism leads to impermissible
expansion of science and cannot also make a suitable justification for
science itself. Naturalism also ends up with an incomplete explanation
for natural phenomena. The synthesis of scientism and naturalism also
implies atheism and cannot be compatible with the theistic worldview.
Also, we should not equate modern science and empirical knowledge
or sense data. Modern science is a modified system that is based on
some philosophical premises like naturalism. These premises are
given a priory and as a dogma that also challenges the position of
empirical knowledge.