Science and Scientism
from
A Brief History of Radionic Technology
for the Creative Individual
by Duncan Laurie
( A history of radionics, starting with discussion of possible ancient art that was probably radionically oriented to a 1300 AD Babylonian geometric device [with many dials] to modern examples.)
Science and Scientism ( pages 21-22)
“Anthropologist Steve Mizrach defines scientism as, “The belief that science is the ultimate authority to which all problems and questions must be directed.
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“Scientism" according to Mizrach, “utilizes a discursive space (scientific journals, symposia and conferences, scientific honors, organizations, etc.) which maintains the boundaries between establishment ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ who are the scientists on the outside. Outsiders seek to imitate this space in order to try to ‘borrow’ some of the discursive space are forced to seek approval from science to be considered legitimate.
“Big science, formerly a challenge to religious authority, has today replaced much of that authority with its own set of assumptions and structures. Like the Church, it has its own language and jargon that reinforces its technical expertise and competence, its own complex support system in industry and government, its own media apparatuses, and its own system of reward and punishment. As such, scientism guarantees the power and authority of science, while maintaining the ability to neutralize competition from outside its hegemony that could challenge its authority.
“In approaching the notion of ‘alternative science’ and its resulting technology, it is important to differentiate between the initial goals of true science and the cultural imperative dictated by scientism.
“One must ask if the pursuit of empirical inquiry into areas deemed irrational by scientism automatically becomes pseudoscience in a negative sense of the word, or whether scientific inquiry can remain impartial in the unfamiliar terrain, even one void of a familiar rationality. One needs only rational. Just follow scientific rationalism into the world quantum reality and modern astrophysics to determine just how far this slender thread can be stretched.”