Ian Hutchinson (1)

Can real knowledge be found other than by science?

In this unique approach to understanding today's culture wars, MIT
professor of nuclear science and engineering, Ian Hutchinson, answers
emphatically yes. He shows how scientism --- the often implicitly-held
contrary view that science is all the knowledge there is --- acts to
suffocate reason, religion, and ultimately science itself. Tracing the
history of the growth of scientism alongside natural science, and
their frequent confusion, Hutchinson explains the characteristics that
make modern science so persuasive and powerful, but at the same time
restrict its scope of application. He shows how a proper recognition
of science's scope, and a proper identification of what we call
nature, makes sense of both science and non-scientific knowledge like
history, law, politics, philosophy, sociology, and religion.

The error of scientism is responsible for much of the modern suspicion
of science by large sections of society and the academy. And it
underlies most of the militant atheist arguments against religion,
which are here concisely refuted. Even though, as Hutchinson explains,
scientism is not proved by science, and scientism as formal philosophy
is largely discredited, the world-view still remains highly
influential today. Often, its presumptions are held by both sides of
the debate, leading to irreconcilable confrontation. But in fact
modern science developed out of a Christian understanding of the
world. Science has been advanced, very often, by sincere Christian
believers, who did not suppose that religious knowledge, or indeed any
other non-scientific knowledge was ruled out by science. Rejecting
scientism enables a principled intellectual reconciliation of science
with religious faith, and with the rest of knowledge… (más)