Radical Skepticism and Scientism-2
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Grand Canyon University *
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Philosophy
Date
Feb 20, 2024
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6
Uploaded by CorporalHerring4112
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Radical Skepticism and Scientism
Maggie Mawhorter
Grand Canyon University
PHI-103
Dan Kemp
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Radical skepticism and scientism are worldviews that are present in our society today.
Both of these views are a part of epistemology which is a branch of philosophy. This paper will
talk about Radical skepticism and Scientism and their implications and how they relate to the
christian worldview. Both radical skepticism and scientism have different beliefs on how they
accumulate knowledge. While both of these beliefs are different they both are wrong according
to the Christian worldview.
Radical Skepticism
Radical skepticism is the belief that we cannot know anything. Radical skepticism denies
all knowledge and or believes that there is no such thing as knowledge. There are four different
types of radical skepticism, the first being pop skepticism. This is the belief that “Our knowledge
of the external world is blocked because various logical possibilities can be raised” (Breggen,
2011). The next one would be scenery skepticism and this tells us, “Sensory skepticism tells us
that we cannot know the external world because our senses deceive us”(Breggen, 2011). Another
would be kantian skepticism which states “We do not know the world because the mind’s
structures are a distorting influence on our knowledge of what is real” (Breggen, 2011). Lastly is
linguistic skepticism and according to this “we cannot know the truth about the world in an
objective way because of the distorting effect of language” (Breggen, 2011). Radical skepticism
is the intellectual state of radical pessimism that experience is probably unachievable. Radical
skeptics hold that there is always a question regarding the veracity of any faith and that
confidence is never fully explained. This is because, when extreme skepticism is given truthfully,
our epistemological ideas are deeply troubled, which is why it is supposed to seem absurd.This is
a positive development. It turns out that we can uncover believable proof for God's existence
since we can know at least a little bit about the outside world. We think that the universe was
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created, that it was caused, that cause transcends matter, energy, space, and time, that the
universe's structure was optimized for life, and that life itself—the molecule's machinery of cells
and the code/language of DNA—is highly optimized (Breggen, 2011). According to Breggen “
Sadly, if a person believes that the external world cannot be known, then it will be difficult for
that person to know that (as Psalm 19:1–2 and Romans 1:20 state) the physical world—its
glorious heavens included—declares the existence of its Creator” (Breggen, 2011). So the
christian worldview doesn't agree with radical skepticism. The christian worldview says that the
external world exists because of the creator and that the physical world includes heaven. While
radical skepticism believes that we don't know anything so that means they probably wouldn't
believe in heaven or God existing. The topic overview talks about proving that God exist and
how people know that. A common statement is “You cannot prove that God exists” (Topic 3).
Christians believe that there is proof in the bible that God exists, therefore disagreeing with
radical skepticism.
Scientism
In epistemology scientism is considered to be the belief that scientific knowledge is the
only knowledge worth having (Kemp, 2024). Gorski says “The dominant paradigm in
contemporary social science is scientism, the attempt to apply the methods of natural science to
the study of society” (Gorski, 1990). This is a broad definition of scientism and how it works,
another philosopher puts it this way “Scientism is a matter of putting too high a value on natural
science in comparison with other branches of learning or culture” (Burrentt, 2012). By learning
more about scientism philosophers believe that they could be masters and professors of nature.
The ultimate goal was to save humans from unnecessary suffering. Some of the implications of
scientism is that it can lead to
a reductionist view of the world which means that everything is
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reduced to scientific components. An article states, “
According to this view, anything that
cannot be studied empirically, such as the supernatural or metaphysical, is either irrelevant or
non-existent” (Courtney, 2023). This is saying that scientists don't believe in any knowledge that
is based on empirical evidence, this includes religious and philosophical knowledge. This means
that if scientism is true then the only knowledge we have is scientific knowledge. However with
that being said “this claim is not itself a scientific claim, but a philosophical one” (Courtney,
2023). This means that scientism is self-defeating and undermining. On the other hand,
scientism and the christian worldview don't really go together. There are a few things that theism
can explain that science cannot. These include, the origin of the universe, origin of fundamental
law of matter and
the fine tuning of the universe (Moreland, 2019). There are all things the
christian worldview believes God created. Science to this day has no way to prove any of these.
In conclusion the Christian worldview does have the same beliefs as radical skepticism
and science. The Christian worldview is not based on science. Both radical skepticism and
scientism come from e
pistemology which is a branch of philosophy. While radical skepticism
beliefs that we cannot know anything. Scientism believes that scientific knowledge is the only
knowledge worth having. The Christian worldview is not based on science so therefore neither
radical skepticism or skepticism can align with the christian worldview.
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References
Breggen. (2023, September 19).
Seven science questions for skeptics
. Christian Research Institute.
https://www.equip.org/articles/seven-science-questions-for-skeptics/
Burnett. (2012, October 1).
What is scientism?
. AAAS - DoSER.
https://sciencereligiondialogue.org/resources/what-is-scientism/
Courtney . (n.d.). Google.
https://www.google.com/#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:09d452b7,vid:o6ooV-19NLY
Gorski. (n.d.). Some biological antecedents of human purpose
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9744.1973.tb00234.x
Moreland, jp. (2019, December 18).
The rise of Scientism
. Talbot Magazine - Biola University
Blogs.
https://www.biola.edu/blogs/talbot-magazine/2019/the-rise-of-scientism
Topic 3 review
In Class Notes
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