Chapter 9: Scientism

In Chapter 9, Postman describes the information overload with a different twist, scientology. Scientism is the “illusory belief that some standardized set of procedures called ‘science’ can provide us with an unimpeachable source of moral authority” (162). We have placed too much faith in science to answer every question, we no longer trust historical facts, but long for an illusion of “fell-good” behavior (169-160). The overload and shifted trust is making humans incapable to make-sense of what we should do next. We believe that everything must be proven by science before we can believe. Postman believes society as blurred the definition of what science is and has made it into one of the pillars of Technopoly, but he does not believe the natural science and social science are of the same discipline, and I agree with him. Postman defines natural science as “the quest to find the immutable and universal laws that govern the process of nature.” Social science applies the methods of natural science to the study of human behavior and thus generates “specific principles by which to organize society on a rational and humane basis”. These studies are interesting, but they will not give us concrete answer to the questions we ask. Postman does not believe the social science is a science at all, just because this discipline has the word science in its name does not mean it is a science and does not give it authority other sciences have. I also believe science, give us answers to our questions, not meaning to our lives, but is this all we are asking it to do?