Naturalizing science: Two episodes in the evolution of a rhetoric of scientism

Abstract

Religious arguments, once a common component of the public rhetoric of science, seemed to disappear after the arrival of Darwinism. This essay argues that these religious themes continue to persist in the public rhetoric of science; however, they have been transposed into an evolutionary symbolism. Religious patterns of signification are important because they provide a convenient means by which to solve difficult philosophical problems continually faced by the scientific culture. The concept of scientism is employed in this essay to denote this kind of rhetorical practice. To illustrate the religious features of scientism and to show the continuity of the ideological work that it has peformed before and after Darwin, the discourses of two of its practitioners, Francis Bacon and Jacob Bronowski, are examined.