In a Heideggerian register, scientism rests on the false assumption that the scientific or theoretical way of viewing things -- what Heidegger calls the present-at-hand -- provides the primary and most significant access to ourselves and the world. Heidegger shows that the scientific view of the world is derivative or parasitic upon a prior practical view of the world as ready-to-hand, that is, the environing world that is closest, most familiar, and most meaningful to us, the world that is always already colored by our cognitive, ethical, and aesthetic values.

¶ 7:59 PM