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Ashley Gamez

Julie Baker

ENGL 1301 280

04/07/24

Does Scientism Undermine Other Forms of Knowledge?

In this article ‘’Does Scientism Undermine Other Forms of Knowledge?’’ the author

Ndubuisi Ani analyzes this topic with research and argues about the scientific claim that science

is the only source that has the answers to gain accurate and undoubtable knowledge. Besides, the

author stated at the very beginning of the article his position towards this argument by

mentioning that the use of research was to challenge the influence of scientism and claimed that

there were even more effective methods to it. He also made sure to use a study to support his side

in the article, saying that the success of science led to fanaticism where science is seen as the

only way to figure out comprehension of reality. Not only that, but the author also added how

this claim affected other fields too that helped gain knowledge by being forgotten or altered just

to work under the scientific method of acquiring information. The article sounds very compelling

with the amount of information the author included in it, as well as its authenticity in his

research. With everything that has been stated, so far it can be assumed that the author will try to

work out his research and argument by using the following rhetorical choices logos, pathos, and

fallacies to provide a better understanding of how there are other forms to attain knowledge with

the availability of other sources.

The author’s first rhetorical choice was to use logos to support his viewpoint in the

research or argument. To follow that, he made the decision to divide his information into
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segments to facilitate his analysis on the topic. Each section in the analysis was made to examine

the objectivity of science in relation to other sources of knowledge, and at that point it can also

be anticipated that he sort of like starts to build a counterargument on the influence of science.

‘’The study culminates with an exploration of the relevance of other means of knowledge,

namely philosophical, religious, and artistic knowledge’’(Ani). Furthermore, the author

continued to name several well-known scholars who were influenced by the scientific methods

by including their reasonings that swayed them to think that certain way, on the different aspects

of gathering knowledge with the influence of science that later helped them make progress to

discover other new beliefs other than focusing solely on science. The author made use of logos to

support the fact that there are other accessible procedures to gather apprehension, and that there

is no need to abandon the fact that there are other ways to construct a view of reality with the

help of referencing wise person with a deep learning.

The second rhetorical choice used in the article was pathos where the author appeals to

the emotions of the readers to make them feel a certain way towards what is being discussed.

Towards the beginning of the article, he claims that ‘’Scientific endeavors have led to a huge

advance in technology which makes our lives and work much easier, thereby giving science a

significant influential role in societies.’’(Ani) implies that this discovery has made a great change

on people’s life that it has become part of it. Further into the article there comes a point where

the author attempts to justify the rationality of knowledge attainment in other sources related to

science. Where he includes the stating of a scholar referring to the feeling of expectation of

people, ‘’Kant observes where we expect philosophy-and other fields of knowledge-to give the

kind of results that science gives’’(Ani). Moreover, the author argues that science has become a

tool that can cause damage in society even though it had also contributed to being valuable and
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useful. ‘’Over the years, because of the lack of ethical concerns in science, human beings,

animals, and nature have been wronged.’’(Ani) To close this part, the author made good

observations on where to add emotional word choices and examples to engage readers, he

continued to contribute the audience into it making them feel a certain way to persuade them and

connect with them to build a more reliable proposition.

The third rhetorical choice the author included in the article to better support his research

was fallacies, where he added several misconceptions on the logic of science for the reader to

understand his argument. Throughout the study in the paper, there have been a couple of times

where the author points out that science has been unable to figure out certain things. Some points

made where that the objective of science was to obtain certitude in knowledge and facts about

the real world but, there was a demand claiming that was not their pursuit rather it was an

evolutionary process where theories are suggested and examined to a solution. In addition to the

following, science is considered to rather doing problem-solving for its claims but later change

them while encountering with additional information, supposing that they change their theory of

reality to solve conflicts in other ways. With that, it can be determined that the author says that

scientists cannot assert to be evident because their perspectives are limited despite their efforts to

accomplish the resolution of the root of the universe. The author also inserted ‘’Although science

is unquestionably the best tool to answer any question one might choose to ask, science offers no

hint as to which questions are important to ask.’’(Ani). So far, the author offered genuine

misbeliefs people might question themselves too, his points went beyond the line of the beliefs of

science, he properly addressed his disagreements through this data further making his claims

stronger and graspable.

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In conclusion, in the article ‘’Does Scientism Undermine Other Forms of Knowledge?’’

the author Avi offered plausible reasons as to why science is thought to be the only source of

information although he also noted that it is not the only source that provides reliable

information. His choice of integrating past formal people backgrounds on science belief as

evidence to support his research was to mainly remain readers the purpose of science and what it

has done to society but also to argue the unreasonable view that science is considered to being

the only example of authentic knowledge and how it got to that point. Furthermore, the author

tried to attract readers more by careful choosing his word choices and remarks to reinforce his

arguments more for readers to derive from his point of view and reasons for believing, other than

that he founded a way to connect with the readers and show them a clear message of his opinion

towards scientism and the way it has been used throughout the years. Beyond that, the author

involved data on a few objectives of science that were unsuccessful, which supports his idea in

other forms of knowledge being capable of doing that because of their vast panorama. The

rhetorical choices or strategies in this article make use of portraying or influencing the authors

argument in an adequate way following the inclusion of his study regarding the topic has proven

that he took his side seriously and tried different practices to convey his outlook.
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Works Cited
Ani, Ndubuisi C. “Does Scientism Undermine Other Forms of Knowledge?” Verbum et Ecclesia,
vol. 37, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1–9, https://doi.org/10.4102/ve.v37i1.1558.