Briefly, "science" is a methodology, useful in all sorts of subjects, from physics and chemistry to (somewhat more controversially) the human sciences, such as psychology and sociology, and useful even for a certain range of other questions. Genuinely "scientific" claims are those that are made on the basis of disciplined, empirical testing, including such things as repetition of results, employment of control groups, single and double blind procedures, peer review of results, publication of raw data, and so forth. But "Scientism" is an ideology. It's an attitude TO anything that anybody calls "science," whether it's real science or not.
Science, in its ideal form:
- employs the scientific method
- uses data and controlled, repeatable experiments
- aims at being as dispassionate and objective as possible
- is skeptical, critical and rational in processing data
- does not regard appeals to tradition or authority as legitimate grounds for conclusion
- presumes the truth about material things is best derived from material testing
- values publication, peer review and critique of results
- makes its conclusions modestly and provisionally, pending the next experiment or theory, since it is revisable and improvable
- has no particular agenda: simply issues results, whatever the implications of those results may be
- is not irritable when questioned: is as willing to see disproof as proof
In contrast, Scientism:
- is an ideological belief
- is often acquired through admiration, not understanding, of science's achievements
- is practiced by those with a naive or limited understanding of scientific method
- calls "scientific" things which are not, such as speculative theories or even public prejudices, and leaps instinctively to the defense of anything called "science" by anyone
- is not skeptical or critical of claims, and shuns critiques
- has no particular methodology and no process of peer review
- cannot produce data, or has only superficial data to support claims
- trusts reputation and authority, and genuflects at the mere sight of a lab coat
- is instantly irritable when questioned, because it is highly sensitive to its own vulnerability and is ultimately interested in confirmation, not truth
But this is really a definitional question, rather than a question of how pure these things ever are in real life. My suggestion would be that, on balance, some people behave more scientifically than Scientistically in relation to a particular question, and some behave more Scientitistically than scientifically.
So my question is simply, "Is this a fair assessment of the difference between science from mere Scientism, or are there other criteria the lists should include?"