Scientism and Ignorance as Methodological Programs in Facts Perception

Characterizing the world around us is a fundamental problem of cognition. Any "modern" way of describing the environment is just another attempt to find out what is going on.?

Neither physics chemistry nor mathematics are capable of satisfactorily describing everything that happens around a person. If they were able to do so, then there would be no differentiation of sciences. There would be one science, and it would (probably!) be about energy. But the inability of the natural sciences, humanities, or alternative sciences to fulfill humankind's "great cognitive program" is not the only problem.

Language, its structure, and laws of functioning cannot cover all phenomena. That is why translation from one language into another (especially in the case of extinct languages or languages spoken by small tribes) is quite relative or sometimes impossible. Therefore, how can we talk about an exhaustive description of the world by any science when this science itself exists only within the framework of language?

Democratization and simplification of world perception will lead to egalitarianism in knowledge. The era of individual discovery is returning, when you can create something new and valuable for the technology market at home with the help of modern technologies and AI

Climate change and energy independence will make the "geography of politics" paramount again. The pandemic has demonstrated to the world the vulnerability of supply chains and the vulnerability of national economies because of it. Access to geographically smoother routes of transportation is gaining importance again. Port cities, or cities located at favorable intersections of trade routes, may gain strategic importance. In other words, all ancient trade centers have a chance for revival.

We can see the consequences of this situation today: primary ways of perceiving the world exist in parallel with science and religion. But they remain a sort of marginal, alternative tool for interpreting the world. The surge of any of these marginal forms of interpreting the world in the 21st century indicates the onset of a crisis in such areas as scientific knowledge and religion, which become mere tools in the hands of those who lead such a movement. This is how religious fanatics appear. This is how science becomes the key to enslaving and killing millions of people.

Ideas such as the existence of protoplasm, phlogiston, aether; the theory of impetus, the philosopher's stone, or the spark of life are strange theories from today's point of view. Historical examples of attempts to explain an open dynamic system using a closed static hypothesis. Although at the time of its creation, each of these hypotheses looks plausible.

Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that "any advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

In alchemy, the method of research and the methods of explanation do not coincide. Chemical reactions appeared as magic. Scholastic tradition created the phenomenon of substantiation and explanation of a fact, theory, or idea. An alchemist could not simply achieve a result without understanding the essence of the reaction and explaining it. Hence, all the fantastic, magical, and mystical explanations of the result. At that period knowledge was not accumulated, and facts could be systematized in a specific scientific environment. The same applies to electricity or the phenomenon of inventor Nikola Tesla.

How are such theories created? Most likely, idealization as a way of perceiving the world is directly or indirectly involved in this process. The two main principles of idealization - modeling, and simplification - are at the heart of such ideas of explaining the world.?

To discard everything superfluous and illogical is an ideal object. For example, a symbol of the past, religious symbols, etc. In a triangle, the diagonal is a simplification.

Creating a metaphysical or mental symbol requires modeling and simplification. After all, even a complex symbol should be understandable, universal, and reproducible. That is, it should contain a simple model for perception by the human mind.

Mythology, totemism, fetishism, tribalism, and other forms of interpretation of the world around us that were early in human history have not disappeared. Neither religion nor the rule of science could do anything about it. Primitive forms of worldview have their internal logic, but they appeal more to human emotions. Of course, our social evolution has accelerated significantly over the past few centuries, along with our biological evolution. But the unexpected waves of totemism, mythology, and tribalism in the past and present only indicate that we are witnessing a multi-crisis situation. The last outbreak of mythology and totemism led to the bloody dictatorships of fascism and communism.

To paraphrase Marx (the genuine humanist philosopher, not the communist empty idol), we can say that "humanity does not part cheerfully with its past."

The state needs science as much as the church used to need it. The religious worldview proves that disobedience is a sin, and the scientistic state proves that disobedience is not rationally justified. All those who violate social norms and laws are either sick (science can help) or they were brought up wrong (only science can fix it). Anything that does not fit into the norms of a state based on science turns out to be an error that can be substantiated by statistics.

Historically, the beginning of the massive introduction of production technologies and the expansion of the geography of trade routes led to a decline in the church's authority, which the state as an independent entity had to replace. The scientific worldview, along with the religious one, became the government's response to the crisis of faith in the state and its infallibility.?

Hence, the belated flourishing of all sorts of theories and ideas that were supposed to explain the structure of the universe better than sacred texts. Today, even the most religious states in the world that claim to play at least some geopolitical role have their space programs and use artificial intelligence (not always for the intended purpose).

Ignorance is the main methodological principle of the emotional theory of the universe today. Unlike the struggle between empiricism and rationalism, emotionalism does not have to prove anything based on facts or search for facts based on methodological principles. Emotionalism has its main methodological principle - a reaction to an event that a person in most cases did not witness at all. The reaction is usually negative, based on ignorance and fear.

Such a worldview gains legitimacy from the point of view of its holders. In this way, its holders do not contradict their everyday experience. In other words, a person's worldview and environment almost correspond to each other.

In this way, the worldview and ideology shape the environment, and all contradictions are "removed" through the intervention of ideology. Therefore, there is no right or wrong worldview, it all depends on the ideology. If it aggressively tries to impose its worldview on other people, peoples, nations, or cultures, then it automatically has to synthesize many internally contradictory ideas to meet the need to be universal.

And all those who do not support the conclusions of the aggressive ideology must either be convinced, destroyed, or publicly considered crazy. This "adolescent" infantilism of ideologies can be observed in religion, science, and politics.