A Relevance of Alfred North Whitehead's <i>Science and the Modern World</i> for Today: Exposing the Incoherence of “Scientism”

Abstract On the 100th anniversary of the publication of Alfred North Whitehead's Science and the Modern World in 1925, it is worth noting the continued relevance of this seminal work. Whitehead's assessment is still defensible that modern dualism is incoherent, as is the reductionistic materialism or mechanism that has resulted from it, along with the “scientism” that relies on reductionistic materialism or mechanism when seen as a metaphysical view. My defense consists of using passages from Science and the Modern World, along with references from contemporary authors, to develop an exposition of the incoherence of scientism. Three contemporary authors in particular are examined in the effort to defend this contemporary relevance of Science and the Modern World: Raymond Tallis, Thomas Nagel, and Philip Goff.