Scientism & Pragmatism


Scientific research and technology have triumphantly marked human life this century and changed many things for the better. However, one unfortunate consequence of this is the growth of a philosophy the Pope labels scientism. Scientists dismiss ethical, theological, aesthetic and religious values as ‘mere emotion’ or ‘old wives’ tales’. Questions of the meaning of life, ultimate reality, universal truth are either unasked or answered by a philosophy which holds to the ‘technological imperative’: we should do whatever we are scientifically capable of doing. Scientists have come alarmingly close to winning major debates about human life: abortion, IVF, genetic engineering, euthanasia etc.

An even more troubling philosophy is pragmatism. Pragmatists omit all values – even scientific values – from choosing. They do not trouble themselves with the great dilemmas of suffering, sacrifice, life’s meaning. They hold that there is no ethics & we should limit our vision to whatever we can get done. This leads to majoritarianism (‘if the majority wants it, we should do it’) or to handing individual freedom and choice to faceless corporations or government agencies that can ‘get things done’.