Antiscience is a position critical of science and the scientific method. Antiscientific views generally claim that science is non-objective method generating non-universal knowledge, and that scientific reductionism is flawed. Antiscience criticises the perceived power and influence of science, and objects to what proponents perceive as an arrogant or closed-minded attitude amongst scientists.^[1] Antiscience has been used to refer to both the New Age and postmodernist movements associated with the political Left, and to socially conservative and fundamentalist movements associated with the political Right. A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor demonstrates the Meissner effect. ... Scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. ... In science, the ideal of objectivity is an essential aspect of the scientific method, and is generally considered by the scientific community to come about as a result of strict observance of the scientific method, including the scientists willingness to submit their methods and results to an open debate by... See also: universalism; Self-organization, Complexity General study of systems Universality is a meta-theory arguing that ostensibly discrete systems are part of a larger complex system that extends across several scales (spatially and temporally), and emerges in patterns during criticality. ... Descartes held that non-human animals could be reductively explained as automata — De homines 1622. ... New Age describes a broad movement characterized by alternative approaches to traditional Western culture. ... Postmodernism is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism. ... Left wing redirects here. ... Social conservatism generally refers to a political ideology or personal belief system that advocates the conservation or resurrection of what one, or ones community, considers to be traditional morality and social structure. ... Fundamentalism is a movement to maintain strict adherence to founding principles. ... “Right wing” redirects here. ...

History

Irresponsible science. From the monument Children, victims of adult vices by Mikhail Shemyakin. Moscow, 2001

Those involved in the beginnings of the scientific revolution such as Robert Boyle found themselves in immediate and direct confrontation with those such as Thomas Hobbes who were extremely skeptical regarding whether what we now think of as the scientific method was a satisfactory way to obtain genuine knowledge of the nature of the world. Hobbes' stance is today seen by many as an anti-science position. Mikhail Chemiakin (left) and Vladimir Vysotsky (right). ... For other uses, see Moscow (disambiguation). ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... This article is about the period or event in history. ... Robert Boyle (Irish: Robaird Ó Bhaoill) (25 January 1627 – 30 December 1691) was an Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, inventor, and early gentleman scientist, noted for his work in physics and chemistry. ... Hobbes redirects here. ...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, is noted for claiming science leads to morality's corruption. Rousseau redirects here. ... Portrait of Jean-Jacques Rousseau A Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences, more commonly known as the Discourse on the Arts and Sciences (French: Discours sur les sciences et les arts), is an essay by French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau arguing that the development of the... Morality is a complex of principles based on cultural, religious, and philosophical concepts and beliefs, by which an individual determines whether his or her actions are right or wrong. ...

Anti-science issues are seen as a fundamental consideration in the transition from 'pre-science' or 'proto-science' such as that evident in Alchemy. Many disciplines which pre-date the widespread adoption and acceptance of the scientific method, such as geometry and astronomy, are not seen as anti-science. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... For other uses, see Alchemy (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Geometry (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Astronomy (disambiguation). ...

Nonetheless, some of the orthodoxies within those disciplines which pre-date a scientific approach (such as those orthodoxies repudiated by the discoveries of Galileo) are seen as being a product of an anti-science stance. Galileo redirects here. ...

The term 'scientism' is sometimes used as a pejorative description, in the sense that individuals to whom this is attributed are claimed to be 'fetishizing' science, or treating science in a similar way to a religion. Scientism is a term mainly used as a pejorative[1][2][3] to accuse someone of holding that science has primacy over all other interpretations of life such as religious, mythical, spiritual, or humanistic explanations. ... A fetish (from French fétiche; from Portuguese feitiço; from Latin facticius, artificial and facere, to make) is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular a man-made object that has power over others. ...

The term reductionism is occasionally used in a similarly pejorative way (as a somewhat more subtle attack on scientists) although scientists can now be found who recognise the conceptual and philosophical shortcomings of reductionism but feel nonetheless comfortable in being labelled as reductionists.^{[citation needed]} Descartes held that non-human animals could be reductively explained as automata — De homines 1622. ...

William Blake in his paintings and writings, reacted strongly against the work of Isaac Newton and is seen as being perhaps the earliest (and almost certainly the most prominent and enduring) example of what is seen by historians as being the aesthetic anti-science response. William Blake (November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827) was an English poet, visionary, painter, and printmaker. ... Sir Isaac Newton FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) [ OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727][1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist. ... Aesthetics (or esthetics) (from the Greek word αισθητική) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty. ...

Political antiscience

Left-wing antiscience

One way the antiscience view is expressed is in the "denial of universality and... legitimisation of alternatives,"^[2] and that "the results of scientific findings [do]... not represent any underlying reality, but are purely the ideology of dominant groups within society."^[2] See also: universalism; Self-organization, Complexity General study of systems Universality is a meta-theory arguing that ostensibly discrete systems are part of a larger complex system that extends across several scales (spatially and temporally), and emerges in patterns during criticality. ...

In this view, science is associated with the political Right and is seen as a belief system that is deeply conservative and conformist, that suppresses innovation, that resists change and that acts dictatorially. This includes the view, for example, that science has a "bourgeois and/or Eurocentric and/or masculinist world-view... and [that] various ethnic groups... would have to develop their own forms of science which need not be as intellectually demanding as the Western male variety."^[2] Bourgeois at the end of the thirteenth century. ... Eurocentrism is the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing emphasis on European (and, generally, Western) concerns, culture and values at the expense of those of other cultures. ...

Right-wing antiscience

In this context, antiscience may be considered dependent on established moral and cultural arguments. There are many modern examples of conservative antiscience, primary among these are arguments against stem cell research, abortion, evolutionary theory, and environmental protection issues such as global warming. As the basis for any particular conclusion, an individual who holds these beliefs may cite ethical/religious/economic concerns; in comparison to liberal views, which pronounce human rights, women's rights, and altogether more libertarian perspectives, as those issues which deserve primary attention. Mouse embryonic stem cells. ... This article is about biological evolution. ... Environmental movement is a term often used for any social or political movement directed towards the preservation, restoration, or enhancement of the natural environment. ... Global warming refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earths near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation. ... See also Libertarianism and Libertarian Party Libertarian,is a term for person who has made a conscious and principled commitment, evidenced by a statement or Pledge, to forswear violating others rights and usually living in voluntary communities: thus in law no longer subject to government supervision. ...

Religious antiscience

Main article: Relationship between religion and science

A frequent basis of antiscientific views is literalist or fundamentalist theism. Here, scientific findings that conflict with what is considered divinely-inspired knowledge are regarded as flawed. Over the centuries such religious thinkers have opposed such ideas as heliocentrism and planetary motion. More recently, the religious theory of creationism, and its evolved form intelligent design, have been promoted by religious literalists to counter the scientific theory of evolution.^[3] Science and Religion are portrayed to be in harmony in the Tiffany window Education (1890). ... Theism is the belief in the existence of one or more divinities or deities. ... Heliocentric Solar System Heliocentrism (lower panel) in comparison to the geocentric model (upper panel) In astronomy, heliocentrism is the theory that the sun is at the center of the Universe and/or the Solar System. ... Two bodies with a slight difference in mass orbiting around a common barycenter. ... Creationism is a religious belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were created in their original form by a deity or deities (often the Abrahamic God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam), whose existence is presupposed. ... For other uses, see Intelligent design (disambiguation). ... This article is about evolution in biology. ...

"Women's ways of knowing"

Feminism, like most philosophical movements, consists of many different versions. Many campaign for equality, womens' rights, etc. But a version of feminism purports that scientific inquiry is sexist because it is incompatible with women's ways of knowing, that women do not engage in abstract reasoning, but instead are subjective knowers that see logic, analysis and abstraction as alien territory belonging to men and value intuition as a safer and more fruitful approach to finding truth.^{[citation needed]}

Three areas of antiscience

Historically, antiscience first arose as a reaction against scientific materialism. The 18th century Enlightenment had ushered in "the ideal of a unified system of all the sciences,"^[4] but there were those fearful of this notion, who "felt that constrictions of reason and science, of a single all-embracing system... were in some way constricting, an obstacle to their vision of the world, chains on their imagination or feeling."^[4] Antiscience then is a rejection of "the scientific model [or paradigm]... with its strong implication that only that which was quantifiable, or at any rate, measurable... was real."^[4] In this sense, it comprises a "critical attack upon the total claim of the new scientific method to dominate the entire field of human knowledge."^[4] The Age of Enlightenment (French: ; Italian: ; German: ; Spanish: ; Swedish: ) was an eighteenth-century movement in Western philosophy. ...

Three major areas of antiscience can be seen in philosophy, sociology and ecology. The following quotes explore this aspect of the subject.

Philosophy

Philosophical objections against science are often objections about the role of reductionism. For example, in the field of psychology, "both reductionists and antireductionists accept that... non-molecular explanations may not be improved, corrected or grounded in molecular ones." ^[5] Further, "epistemological antireductionism holds that, given our finite mental capacities, we would not be able to grasp the ultimate physical explanation of many complex phenomena even if we knew the laws governing their ultimate constituents."^[6] Some see antiscience as "common...in academic settings...many people confuse science, scientism and pseudoscience, resulting in an antiscience stance. Some argue that nothing can be known for sure." ^[7]

Many scholars are "divided as to whether reduction should be a central strategy for understanding the world."^[8] However, many agree that "there are, nevertheless, reasons why we want science to discover properties and explanations other than reductive physical ones." ^[8] Such issues stem "from an antireductionist worry that there is no absolute conception of reality, that is, a characterization of reality such as... science claims to provide." ^[9] This is close to the Kantian view that reality is ultimately unknowable and all models are just imperfect approximations to it.

Sociology

Sociologist Thomas Gieryn refers to "some sociologists who might appear to be antiscience."^[10] Some "philosophers and antiscience types," he contends, may have presented "unreal images of science that threaten the believability of scientific knowledge,"^[10] or appear to have gone "too far in their antiscience deconstructions."^[10] The question often lies in how far scientists can be said to really conform to the standard stereotype of "communalism, universalism, disinterestedness, originality, and... skepticism."^[10] Unfortunately, "scientists don't always conform... scientists do get passionate about pet theories; they do rely on reputation in judging a scientist's work; they do pursue fame and gain via research."^[10] Thus, they do show inherent biases in their work. Many "scientists are not as rational and logical as the legend would have them, nor are they as illogical or irrational as some relativists might say."^[10].

Ecology and health sphere

Within the ecological and health spheres, Levins identifies a conflict "not between science and antiscience, but rather between different pathways for science and technology; between a commodified science-for-profit and a gentle science for humane goals; between the sciences of the smallest parts and the sciences of dynamic wholes... [he] offers proposals for a more holistic, integral approach to understanding and addressing environmental issues." ^[11] These beliefs are also common within the scientific community, with for example, scientists being prominent in environmental campaigns warning of environmental dangers such as ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect. It can also be argued that this version of antiscience comes close to that found in the medical sphere where patients and practitioners may choose to reject reductionism and adopt a more holistic approach to health problems. This can be both a practical and a conceptual shift and has attracted strong criticism: "therapeutic touch, a healing technique based upon the laying-on of hands, has found wide acceptance in the nursing profession despite its lack of scientific plausibility. Its acceptance is indicative of a broad antiscientific trend in nursing." ^[12] Global monthly average total ozone amount Ozone depletion describes two distinct, but related observations: a slow, steady decline of about 4 percent per decade in the total amount of ozone in Earths stratosphere since around 1980; and a much larger, but seasonal, decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earths... Wikinews has related news: Scientists warn thawing Siberia may trigger global meltdown A schematic representation of the exchanges of energy between outer space, the Earths atmosphere, and the Earth surface. ...

Glazer also criticises the therapists and patients, "for abandoning the biological underpinnings of nursing and for misreading philosophy in the service of an antiscientific world-view".^[12] Brian Martin provides a view of the conflict between science and antiscience: "Gross and Levitt's basic approach is to attack constructivists for not being positivists."^[13] Science is "presented as a unitary object, usually identified with scientific knowledge. It is portrayed as neutral and objective. Second, science is claimed to be under attack by 'antiscience' which is composed essentially of ideologues who are threats to the neutrality and objectivity that are fundamental to science. Third, a highly selective attack is made on the arguments of 'antiscience'."^[13] Such people allegedly then "routinely equate critique of scientific knowledge with hostility to science, a jump that is logically unsupportable and empirically dubious."^[13] Having then "constructed two artificial entities, a unitary 'science' and a unitary 'academic left', each reduced to epistemological essences, Gross and Levitt proceed to attack. They pick out figures in each of several areas -- science studies, postmodernism, feminism, environmentalism, AIDS activism -- and criticise their critiques of science."^[13] Theory of knowledge redirects here: for other uses, see theory of knowledge (disambiguation) According to Plato, knowledge is a subset of that which is both true and believed Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature, methods, limitations, and validity of knowledge and belief. ...

The writings of Young serve to illustrate more rhetorical antiscience outpourings: "The strength of the antiscience movement and of alternative technology is that their advocates have managed to retain Utopian vision while still trying to create concrete instances of it."^[14] "the real social, ideological and economic forces shaping science...[have] been opposed to the point of suppression in many quarters. Most scientists hate it and label it 'antiscience'. But it is urgently needed, because it makes science self-conscious and hopefully self-critical and accountable with respect to the forces which shape research priorities, criteria, goals."^[14]

Opposition to reductionism and positivism

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ...

Failure to appreciate subtle complexity

The formulas of mathematical models are "artificial constructions, logical figments with no necessary relation to the outside world." [Berlin, 2000, 123]. These models always "leave out the richest and most important part of human experience...daily life, history, human laws and institutions, the modes of human self- expression." [Berlin, 2000, 110] A failure to appreciate the subtle complexity of social worlds, means they get excluded from the formulas, even though, “no easy reductionism will do justice to the material.” [Coleman] This approach often fails to concentrate “on social structures, processes, and actions in a specific sense (inequality, mobility, classes, strata, ethnicity, gender relations, urbanization, work and life of different types of people, not just elites),” [Kocka] and so tends to generate mostly meaningless oversimplifications.

From reductionism to positivism

This basically comes down to the issue of positivism, which is "the view that all true knowledge is scientific," [Bullock & Trombley, p.669] and that all things are ultimately measurable. Positivism is a philosophy that states that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge, and that such knowledge can only come from positive affirmation of theories through strict scientific method. ...

Because of its "close association with reductionism," [ibid] it is worth saying that positivism and reductionism involve the view that "entities of one kind...are reducible to entities of another," [ibid] such as societies to numbers, or mental events to chemical events. It also involves the contention that "processes are reducible to physiological, physical or chemical events," [ibid] and even that "social processes are reducible to relationships between and actions of individuals," [ibid] or that "biological organisms are reducible to physical systems." [ibid]

See also

• Anti-intellectualism
• Politicization of science
• Scientism
• Scientific mythology
• List of paradigm shifts in science
• Postmodernism
• Faith and rationality
• William R. Steiger

Anti-intellectualism describes a sentiment of hostility towards, or mistrust of, intellectuals and intellectual pursuits. ... The politicization of science occurs when government, business or interest groups use legal or economic pressure to influence the findings of scientific research which differ from the majority view, or influence the way the research is disseminated, reported or interpreted. ... Scientism is a term mainly used as a pejorative[1][2][3] to accuse someone of holding that science has primacy over all other interpretations of life such as religious, mythical, spiritual, or humanistic explanations. ... There are many stories that inform our understanding of the history of science and technology. ... Postmodernism is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism. ... Faith and rationality are two modes of belief which are seen to exist in varying degrees of conflict or compatibility. ... William R. Steiger William Raymond Steiger (born c. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/93crarrog.html Brian Martin, The arrogance of scientists
2. ^ ^{a b c} Sean Robsville "Postmodernism - a threat to Buddhism?": Personal website
3. ^ Jon D. Miller, Eugenie C. Scott, Shinji Okamoto Public Acceptance of Evolution Science 11 August 2006: Vol. 313. no. 5788, pp. 765 - 766
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Isaiah Berlin, The Proper Study of Mankind, London: Pimlico, 1997, p328
5. ^ Alex Rosenberg and D. M. Kaplan "How to Reconcile Physicalism and Antireductionism about Biology" Philosophy of Science 72 (January 2005) pp. 43-68
6. ^ Nagel T. "Reductionism and antireductionism." Novartis Found Symp. 1998;213:3-10; discussion 10-4, 73-5.
7. ^ Eileen Gambrill, Evidence based practice, an alternative to authority based practice, Families in Society, the Journal of Contemporary Human Services, 80.4, 1999, 341-350
8. ^ ^{a b} Todd Jones, Reductionism and Antireductionism: Rights and Wrongs, Metaphilosophy, Volume 35, Number 5, October 2004, pp. 614-647
9. ^ Peter W. Ross and Dale Turner, "Sensibility Theory and Conservative Complacency"
10. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Thomas F. Gieryn, Book Review of John Ziman. Real Science: What it is and What it Means, Cambridge: Cambridge, University Press, 2000, Isis, vol. 93 (2002), pp. 544–545
11. ^ Richard Levins, Whose Scientific Method? Scientific Methods for a Complex World, New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy,Vol.13,3, 2003, 261-274
12. ^ ^{a b} Sarah Glazer, "Therapeutic touch and postmodernism in nursing", Nursing Philosophy (2001) 2(3), 196-212.
13. ^ ^{a b c d} Brian Martin, Social Construction of an 'Attack on Science', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 26, No. 1, February 1996, pp. 161-173.
14. ^ ^{a b} Robert M. Young, Science is Social Relations

Bibliography

• A Bullock & S Trombley [Eds.], The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, third edition, London: Harper Collins, 1999
• Burger, P and Luckman, T, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966
• Collins, Harry and Pinch, Trevor, The Golem. What everyone should know about science, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993
• Gross, Paul R and Norman Levitt, Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994
• Knorr-Cetina, Karin D, & Mulkay, Michael, Science Observed: Perspectives on the Social Study of Science, Sage Publications Ltd, 1983
• Knorr-Cetina, Karin D, Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge, Harvard University Press, 1999
• Levins, R. "Ten propositions on science and antiscience" in Social Text, 46/47:101–111, 1996.
• Levins, R. "Touch Red," in Judy Kaplan an Linn Shapiro, eds., Red Diapers: Growing up in the Communist Left, U. of Illinois, 1998, pp. 257-266.
• Levins, R. Dialectics and systems theory in Science and Society 62(3):373-399, 1998.
• Levins, R. "The internal and external in explanatory theories", Science as Culture, 7(4):557–582, 1998.
• Levins, R. and Lopez C. "Toward an ecosocial view of health", International Journal of Health Services 29(2):261-293, 1999.
• Nye, Andrea, Words of Power: A Feminist Reading of the History of Logic, London: Routledge, 1990
• Pepper, David, The Roots of Modern Environmentalism, London: Routledge, 1989
• Vining, Joseph, On the Future of Total Theory: Science, Antiscience, and Human Candor, Erasmus Institute papers, 1999

• Leviathan and the Air Pump Schapin and Shaffer (covers the conflict between Hobbes and Boyle).
• The Scientific Outlook by Bertrand Russell (sets out the limits of science from the perspective of a vehement campaigner against anti-science).
• An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume (The first major work to point out the limits of inductive reasoning, the 'new tool of science').
• Against Method by Paul Feyerabend (probably the individual most accused of reinvigorating anti-science, although some claim that he is in fact strengthening the scientific debate).

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, advocate for social reform, and pacifist. ... This article is about the philosopher. ... Paul Karl Feyerabend (January 13, 1924 – February 11, 1994) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science best known for his work as a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked for three decades (1958-1989). ...

External links

• A website that explores this topic
• A useful antiscience discussion website
• An insightful article exploring both sides of the 'science wars'
• The Postmodern Critique of Science
• A Critique of Western Science by Alex Paterson
• The Critique of Science Becomes Academic by Brian Martin
• If They Believe That - Science by Reginald Firehammer
• The Ontological Reversal: A Figure of Thought of Importance for Science Education by Bo Dahlin
• Davidson, Donald, Essays on Actions and Events, OUP, 2001, ISBN-10: 0-19-924627-0
• Alex Rosenberg and D. M. Kaplan, How to Reconcile Physicalism and Antireductionism about Biology, Philosophy of Science, Volume 72.1, January 2005, pp.43-68
• Psychoneural Reduction The New Wave, John Bickle, Bradford Books, March 1998, ISBN 0-262-02432-2 Abstract