Scientism is that really odd philosophy which maintains that, if Science can't measure or examine it, it's not real. Of course, this isn't a scientific statement; it's a philosophy, and not real by its own definition (in twenty-dollar words, it's "self-referentially incoherent"). But just to give a taste of how ridiculous the proposition is, let me ask a few questions:
- How long in angstroms is sarcasm?
- What is the specific gravity of justice?
- What's the net present value of the US victory over the Soviet Union team in the 1980 Winter Olympics hockey playoffs?
- What's the parallax of a Kodak moment?
I'm not a trained philosopher—my major was in sociology—but even I know such a position is dumb.
