Before You Know It (Was: The Devil of Scientism

Grice was perhaps overwhelmed by 'science'. He saw the devil of scientism everywhere. I don't.

I see 'scio' as Latin for 'know'.

The adjective should be 'scientic' -- alas seldom used:

1541 R. COPLAND Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. Pref.,

There be ryght many and sondry sortes,
aswell of very good and scyentyke bokes,
as of ryght expert men
within this Realme in the scyentycall arte of Cyrugery.
Ibid., Your scyentycall
beneuolence.

But when it becomes an -ism, beware the bete noire!

Etc.

JL

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1875 W. JAMES in R. B. Perry Tht. & Char. of W. James (1935) I. 523 In a
rough way materialism or ‘scientificism’ gratifies no. (1) [sc. an explanation
of things by their cause]. 1884 Will to Believe (1897) 165 Subjectivism has
three great branches,we may call them scientificism, sentimentalism, and
sensualism, respectively.

1877 Fraser's Mag. XVI. 274 Its dogmatism on the one hand,..and its ‘
scientism’ on the other, even when most atheistic, are tempered with mutual
civility. 1895 Daily News 14 Nov. 6/5 By scientism he meant to express that change
which had come over the thought of the world in consequence of the wonderful
additions to the common stock of knowledge. 1903 Contemp. Rev. May 727 What
modern Scientism knows as the Supersensuous Consciousness.

1921 G. B. SHAW Back to Methuselah p. lxxviii, The iconography and hagiology
of Scientism are as copious as they are mostly squalid. 1937 J. LAVER French
Painting in Nineteenth Cent. i. 73 It really appeared to many educated
people that at last all the secrets of the universe would be discovered and all
the problems of human life solved. This superstition..we may call ‘Scientism’.

1938 G. REAVEY tr. Berdyaev's Solitude & Society i. 12 Science has not only
progressively reduced the competence of philosophy, but it has also attempted
to suppress it altogether and to replace it by its own claim to
universality. This process is generally known as ‘scientism’. 1942 F. A. VON HAYEK in Economica IX. 269 We shall wherever we are concerned, not with the general
spirit of disinterested inquiry but with that slavish imitation of the method and
language of science, speak of ‘scientism’ or the ‘scientistic’ prejudice.

1953 A. H. HOBBS Social Problems & Scientism ii. 17 Scientism, as a belief
that science can furnish answers to all human problems, makes science a
substitute for philosophy, religion, manners, and morals... It is a pattern of
beliefs..a creed that shapes thinking and affects behavior. 1956 E. H. HUTTEN
Lang. Mod. Physics vi. 273 This belief in the omnipotence of science is..making a
mockery of science: for this scientism represents the same, superstitious,
attitude which, in previous times, ascribed such power to a supernatural
agency. 1957 W. H. WHYTE Organization Man iii. 23 Scientism,..the promise that
with the same techniques that have worked in the physical sciences we can
eventually create an exact science of man. 1969 Encounter Jan. 23/2 There is an
aberration of science..which has come to be known as ‘scientism’... It stands
for the belief that science knows or will soon know all the answers. 1972 K.
R. POPPER Objective Knowl. iv. 185 The term ‘scientism’ meant originally ‘the
slavish imitation of the method and language of (natural) science’,
especially by social scientists. Ibid. 186 But I would go even further and accuse at least some professional historians of ‘scientism’. 1977 A. SHERIDAN tr. J.
Lacan's Écrits iii. 76 The early development of
psychoanalysis..expresses..nothing less than the re-creation of human meaning in an arid period of scientism. 1980 Times Lit. Suppl. 26 Sept. 1072/2 Naturalism, in David Thomas's usage, is equivalent to what many know as scientism: the doctrine that there is no reason to think that the study of human agents, and the study of the social systems to which human agents give rise, cannot be pursued according to a methodology drawn from natural science.