CONCEPT
Scientism
Not science, but the inflation of scientific findings into metaphysical claims that the science itself does not support — the intellectual vice Midgley spent sixty years naming.
Scientism is the doctrine that science is the only genuine form of knowledge and that everything real is in principle describable in scientific terms. Midgley was careful to distinguish scientism from science itself. Science is a set of practices for investigating empirical reality. Scientism is a philosophy about science — one that science itself cannot justify, because the claim that 'only science produces knowledge' is not itself a scientific claim. It is a metaphysical claim made by people who often deny that metaphysics is legitimate. Midgley identified scientism as the characteristic intellectual vice of the late twentieth century, and her entire methodology of philosophical plumbing was designed to expose where scientism had taken hold and what got flooded as a result.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The distinction matters because defenders of scientism frequently accuse their critics of being anti-science. Midgley rejected the accusation forcefully. She argued that she was more respectful of what science actually does than the scientists who inflated its findings into worldviews. Respect for