RE: [asa] The Origin(s) of 'Scientism'

In the book "Ideas of the Great Philosophers" by Sahakian it states that the chief exponent of scientism was Bertrand Russell. Nothing about the origin.
 
Moorad

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From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu on behalf of Gregory Arago
Sent: Thu 8/3/2006 2:46 PM
To: ASA
Subject: [asa] The Origin(s) of 'Scientism'

There is a question that has been sticking in my mind for several months, which has been raised here at the ASA discussion list before (http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/200601/0284.html), though the fundamental question went unasked.
 
It is this: does anyone know who coined the term 'scientism'?
 
The farthest I could trace back the term is to Ludwig von Mises' Theory and History (1957 - http://www.mises.org/th/chapter11.asp).
 
Of course, there are scientific figures who have demonstrated 'scientism' by their ideas and theories before the term was itself coined. I'm not inquiring about that, but rather about the 'emergence' of the word/concept/percept 'scientism' itself. That is, how it came to be used as a matter of language.
 
Knowing that this is an association of scientists, it may seem like an absurd question. But I ask it in good faith, wondering if knowing who coined the term would help to shed some light on some other questions I've recently been posing. Hopefully the humility of a theologically-minded science and/or a scientifically-minded theology will help to enable an answer.
 
Thanks,
 
Gregory

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Received on Thu Aug 3 15:09:27 2006