A critical framework from the social and human sciences, metascience, and infrascience, arguing that science in practice reproduces the same roles, power structures, and forms of oppression as any other ideology—despite its self‑image as neutral truth‑seeking. It examines how “science” is invoked to legitimize
hierarchies, how “pseudoscience” is deployed to silence dissent, and how
scientific institutions mirror other structures of authority. For example, a neo‑atheist might declare all spiritual beliefs “pseudoscience” except their own metaphysical commitments (e.g., a singular
omnipotent God); here, “science” functions as ideology: not a method of inquiry but a boundary‑marker to disqualify competing worldviews while exempting one’s own from scrutiny.
Example: “He called every spiritual tradition ‘
pseudoscience’ but refused to examine his own belief in absolute
materialism—theory of science as
ideology, using the label of science to protect his worldview from critique.”