What term refers to those who adhere to scientism?

What do you call to a person who places dogmatic faith in the methods of science?

What is the agent noun (eg biologist for biology) corresponding to scientism? Here scientist would be confusing.

I'm looking for what I intuitively want to call "scientist", but that means the opposite of what I'm looking for.

Solution 1:

Though scientist is obviously the correct word, I doubt that's what you're looking for. Depending on the context, I occasionally use "empiricist", "positivist", "rationalist", or even (sadly) "verificationist" when I get tired of using "scientist."

Solution 2:

What term refers to those who adhere to scientism?

To first clarify the question, "scientism" is the belief that the only valid way to understand the world is through application of the scientific method.

A scientist is a person who uses the scientific method to understand the world; a scientist need not believe that the scientific method is the only valid way to understand the world. And a believer in scientism need not actually practice science. So scientist is out.

Someone who is alleged to believe in scientism is, unfortunatly, said to be a scientismist, which is a terribly inelegant word. You might consider whether empiricist or logical positivist work in your context. I note also that an accusation of scientism is frequently pejorative in a way that an accusation of empiricism is not.