ABSTRACT
This chapter characterizes ‘scientism’ as an influential misconception of science based on dogmatic philosophical assumptions: ontological materialism, epistemological hypothetico-deductive causal explanation testing, and the arrogant preeminence of science over all other ways of knowing the world. Scientism is characterized as antithetical to genuine science inasmuch as science requires fidelity to various kinds of realities, multiple ways of knowing, and humility given the inadequacy of all empirical knowledge. Scientism is particularly problematic in psychology because materialism excludes the mental in principle, explanatory hypothesis testing excludes qualitative research into what is being explained, and the preeminence of science precludes a mutually beneficial, critical interchange with other disciplines, professions, and nonscientific cultures. The struggle between scientism and movements toward genuine psychology are documented throughout history in phenomenology, humanism, psychoanalysis, learning theory, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and research methodology. The dangers of indoctrinating psychology students in scientism are demonstrated by explicating this project, with all its contradictions, in a current introductory psychology textbook. The importance of continued movement beyond scientism is elaborated with regard to psychology’s ability to save such uniquely personal phenomena as meaning, value, and purpose, as well as for healthy interdisciplinary collaboration with the humanities, arts, and other sciences.
