Contemporary scientism contends that there is no such thing as metaphysics that can go beyond physics and that nothing can attain fundamentals better than modern science. Feser disputes these contentions:-
1. The philosophical theory known as “scientism” is either self-defeating or trivial. Feser shows that science depends upon philosophy to justify its presuppositions and its method, as well as to interpret its results. Usually, whenever scientists are caught in the act of making self-defeating “scientistic” philosophical claims (“self-defeating” because they began by claiming that philosophy is dead and we only need science now), when the self-defeating contradiction is pointed out to them, they then claim that, okay, philosophy is allowed, as long as it has “scientistic” presuppositions. But obviously such a claim is trivial, since it rules out dialogue with all other philosophical points of view. It rigs the debate in advance, since it defines those other points of view as “non-scientific,” and unworthy of philosophical consideration, because they do not endorse the superiority of science the way the philosophy of “scientism” does.
But it is a trivial point to establish that your philosophy is the only real philosophy if you have defined anything that is not “scientism” as not being philosophy. Either way—whether “scientism” asserts science’s superiority by a self-defeating philosophical claim, or whether it rigs the debate by trivially defining scientism as the only serious form of philosophy—“scientism” withers as soon as it comes under the burning light of serious philosophical scrutiny.
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* The reviewer is Christopher S. Morrissey, professor of philosophy at Redeemer Pacific College, Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia.
Scholastic Metaphysics: a Contemporary Introduction by Edward Feser. Editions Scholasticae, 2014, 290pp.
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