Pseudoscience

This article argues that pseudoscience lacks an adequate philosophical analysis. Using conspiracy theories as a case study, it is claimed that such an analysis needs to go beyond a mere epistemological approach. In the first part, it is shown that the existing philosophical literature shares the assumption that conspiracy theories are primarily deficient scientific hypotheses. This claim is contested, because such an approach can only understand what conspiracy theories fail to be, but not what they are and why people tend (...) to endorse them. To develop an alternative, the second part starts from recent sociology of science, applied to conspiracy theories, that claims that both true and false theories are in need of a symmetrical social explanation. However, this opens the path to relativism because it does not allow for a significant distinction between scientific and conspiracy theories. In the third section an alternative analysis of conspiracy theories is offered, which does not abandon this distinction. Moreover, it is claimed that the most important element of conspiracy theories is not their truth value but rather their symbolic structures of meaning. The aim of conspiracy theories, and perhaps of pseudoscience in general, is then not to know facts about the world, but rather to offer a meaningful framework within which to live. (shrink)

Since Popper and Lakatos, the demarcation line between science and non-science has been considered to be one of the fundamental issues of the philosophy of science. According to Lakatos, pseudoscience is a non-science, which appears as science, using a public authority of science. Since then, mountains of texts have been published on how non-sciences, such as astrology, are not sciences. But the enemy is not on the other side of the border. The enemy is in our midst. The science has (...) been institutionalized. The best way to do the pseudoscience is to fuss inside the big enterprise that has been recognized as a science. (shrink)

Întrebarea de bază este, ce este o pseudoştiinţă? Una din cele mai disputate delimitări ale ştiinţei. Mulţi savanţi de renume mondial, unanim recunoscuţi (ca de ex. Charles Darwin) au cochetat de-a lungul timpului cu diverse aspecte ale pseudoştiinţei considerându-le, cu bună credinţă, drept ştiinţă. Şi multe domenii ale pseudoştiinţei actuale au fost, la vremea lor, considerate drept domenii onorabile ale ştiinţei. Chiar şi în prezent, practicanţii pseudoştiinţelor nu recunosc valabilitatea etichetei puse domeniului lor de activitate. Oamenii de ştiinţă au tendinţa (...) să claseze pe loc un domeniu de activitate, în funcţie de cunoştinţele şi cultura lor, drept ştiinţă sau pseudoştiinţă. Dar graniţa dintre ştiinţă şi pseudoştiinţă este în multe cazuri foarte vagă. Într-un fel, această problemă seamănă cu problema filozofică a stabilirii a ce e bine şi ce e rău. Filosofii ştiinţei, cum ar fi Paul Feyerabend, au susţinut că nu este nici posibil, nici de dorit, o distincţie între ştiinţă şi non-ştiinţă. Printre problemele care pot face distincţia dificilă este viteza variabilă de evoluţie între teoriile şi metodologiile ştiinţei ca răspuns la noile date. În plus, standardele specifice aplicabile unui domeniu al ştiinţei ar putea să nu fie aplicabile în alte domenii. După cum se spune în diferite cursuri despre introducerea în ştiinţe, pseudoştiinţa este oricare subiect care pare a fi ştiinţific la prima vedere, sau ai cărui susţinători susţin că este ştiinţific, dar care contravine condiţiilor de testare sau deviază mult de la alte aspecte fundamentale ale metodelor ştiinţifice. Pseudoştiinţa este caracterizată de folosirea unor afirmaţii vagi, exagerate sau care nu se pot testa, supralicitarea confirmării în detrimentul argumentării, lipsa transparenţei pentru teste realizate de alţi experţi, şi o stagnare în dezvoltarea teoriei. CUPRINS: Pseudoştiinţa - Ştiinţa şi pseudoştiinţa - - Metodologie ştiinţifică - - Falsificabilitatea - - Normele Merton - - Refuzul de a recunoaşte problemele - - Critica termenului - Identificarea pseudoştiinţei - Ştiinţa patologică - - Exemplele lui Langmuir - - - Raze N - - - Exemple ulterioare - - Exemple mai noi - - - Poliapa - - - Fuziunea la rece - - - Memoria apei - Antropomorfism - - În preistorie - - În religie şi mitologie - - - Critici - - În ştiinţă - - - Antonim - Criptozoologia - - Referinţe - - Critici - Pseudomatematica - - Unele taxonomii ale pseudomatematicii - - - Încercările de rezolvare a problemelor clasice imposibil de rezolvat - - Practicanţii - - Un exemplu ilustrativ - Radiestezia - - Originea radiesteziei - - Dispozitivele de detecţie - - - Anse - - Evaluarea ştiinţifică a radiesteziei - - - Studiul Kassel - - - Studiu Betz - - - Explicaţii sugerate - Scientologia - - Credinţe - - - Puntea Libertăţii Totale - - - Morala şi etica - - - Triunghiurile ARC şi KRC - - - Viaţa de apoi - - - Dumnezeu - - - Ştiinţa - - Învăţături şi practici - - - Terminologie - - - Interpretare şi context - - - Învăţarea treptată - - - Audit - - - Organismul - - - Naşterea silenţioasă - - - Sărbători - Sincronicitatea - - Principiul - - Exemplu - - Relaţia cu cauzalitatea - - Critici - Programarea neuro-lingvistică - - Tehnici sau set de practici - - Aplicaţii - - - Psihoterapie - - - Alte utilizări - - NLP ca o cvasi-religie - Manipularea şi automanipularea prin cuvinte - - Aflaţi când şi unde se folosesc cuvintele - - Testaţi pentru a vedea cum reacţionaţi la cuvinte - - Controlul sau manipularea prin cuvinte - - Uitaţi-vă la nivelul cuvintelor - - Vedeţi cum vă pot ajuta cuvintele, făcându-se nu doar utile, ci şi frumoase - - Exploraţi lumea mentală a cuvintelor - - - Încercaţi să exploraţi lumea fără cuvinte - - Priviţi din nou totul, pentru prima dată fără cuvinte Pseudofizica - Anti-gravitaţia - - Efecte convenţionale care imită efectele anti-gravitaţiei - - Soluţii ipotetice - - - Scuturi gravitaţionale - - - Cercetări în relativitatea generală în anii 1950 - - - A cincea forţă - - - "Unităţi distorsionate" în relativitatea generală - - - Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program - - Încercări experimentale şi comerciale - - - Dispozitive giroscopice - - - Gravitatorul lui Thomas Townsend Brown - - - Cuplarea gravitoelectrică - - - Premiul Göde - Energia orgonică - - Dezvoltarea de către Reich a teoriilor sale orgonice - - Cărţile lui Reich - - Evaluarea teoriei - Eter luminifer - - Dezavantaje şi critici - Fuziunea la rece - - Fuziunea cu bule - - Rezultate - - - Producţia de energie şi căldura în exces - - - Heliu, elemente grele, şi neutroni - - Mecanisme propuse - Planete ipotetice: X / Nibiru - - Teorii ale conspiraţiei - - Reacţii publice - - Influenţa culturală - Poliapa (Apa polimerizată) - Maşini alimentate cu apă - - Ce nu sunt maşini alimentate cu apă - - Extragerea energiei din apă - - Hidrogenul ca supliment - - Pilula de benzină şi aditivi Pseudoarheologia - Caracteristici - - Lipsa metodei ştiinţifice - - Opoziţia la regulile arheologice - - Motivaţii naţionaliste - - Motivaţii religioase - Rasele de bază - - Rase de bază, epoci şi subrase - - - Prima rasă de bază (eterică) - - - A doua rasă de bază (hiperboreană) - - - A treia rasă de bază (lemuriană) - - - A patra rasă de bază (atlantidă) - - - A cincea rasă de bază (ariană) - - - A şasea rasă de bază - - - A şaptea rasă de bază - - Migrarea spre Mercur - - Credinţa teosofică în fraternitatea umanităţii - Protocronism - - Istoria protocronismului - - Scrierea dacică - Pământul gol (Intratereştrii) - - Ipoteza Pământului gol concav - Fenomenul 2012 - - Tortuguero - - Chilam Balam - Creaţia inteligentă - - Concepte - - - Complexitatea ireductibilă - - - Complexitatea specifică - - - Universul bine pus la punct - - - Creatorul inteligent - - Mişcarea creaţia inteligentă - - - Religia şi susţinătorii importanţi - Creaţionismul ştiinţific - - Abordări ale ştiinţei creaţiei - - - Religia - - - Afilieri religioase moderne - - - Abordări ştiinţifice - - Critici - - - Ipoteze metafizice - - - Critici religioase - - - Critici ştiinţifice - - - Critici istorice, filozofice, şi sociologice - - Domenii de studiu - - - Biologia creaţionistă - - - Ştiinţele Pământului şi Geofizica - - - Astronomia şi cosmologia - Ufologia - - Statutul ca disciplină ştiinţifică - - - Pseudoştiinţă - - - Aspecte metodologice - Teoria astronautului extraterestru - - Argumente şi susţinători - - Erich von Däniken - - Ipoteza creaţiei - - - Argumentul genetic - - - Cercetarea genetică şi evoluţia creierului Medicina alternativă - Tipuri de medicină alternativă - - Sisteme bazate pe convingeri neştiinţifice sau practici tradiţionale - - Energii supranaturale şi interpretări eronate ale energiilor fizice - Ayurveda - Homeopatia - - Remedii şi tratamente - - - Pregătirea - - - Diluţii - - - Patogeneza - - Reglementări şi prevalenţe - - Opoziţia publică - Medicina energetică - - Clasificarea metodelor - - Convingeri - - Cercetări ştiinţifice - - - Vindecarea la distanţă - - - Vindecarea prin contact - - - Baza de date - - Explicaţii alternative pentru rapoarte pozitive - Reiki - - Practica - - - Vindecarea - - - Tratamentul întregului organism - - - Tratament localizat - - - Respiraţia - - - Trei piloni de bază - Terapia de conversie - Metoda Bates pentru îmbunătăţirea vederii - - Concepte - - - Acomodarea - - - Cauze ale problemelor de vedere - Detoxifierea - - Detoxifierea în medicina alternativă - - - Istoric - - - Tampoane de curăţare şi detoxifiere - - Tipuri de detoxifiere - - - Dezintoxicarea de alcool - - - Dezintoxicarea de droguri - - - Detoxifiere metabolică - - - Medicina alternativă - - Modalităţi de detoxifiere - - - Diete de detoxifiere - - - Curăţirea colonului - - - Metale grele - - - Dispozitive de detoxifiere - - Terapia de chelare - - - Detoxifierea proteică - - Detoxifierea anusului şi intestinelor cu cafea - - - Efecte şi riscuri - - Plasturi (tampoane) de detoxifiere aplicate pe picioare - - - Ce sunt plasturii de detoxifiere (tampoanele de detoxifiere) pentru picior? - - - De ce se aplică plasturii pe picioare? - Fizionomia - - Origini moderne - - Perioada de popularitate - - Ştiinţa modernă - - Utilizarea modernă - Frenologia Paranormal - Activităţi paranormale - - Fantome şi alte entităţi spirituale - - Viaţa extraterestră şi OZN-urile - - Criptide - Cercetări în paranormal - - Abordări anecdotice - - Abordarea observaţiilor participanţilor - - Anomalistica - - Neuroştiinţa - - Critici - Vitalism - - Filozofia - - Ştiinţa - - - Relaţia cu emergentismul - - Mesmerism - - Medicina complementară şi alternativă - Aura - - Tradiţii spirituale - - Teste - - Explicaţii - Profeţii - - Definiţii - - Civilizaţii antice - - Credinţa Bahá'í - - Budism - - China - Religiile abrahamice - - Iudaism - - - She'ol - Experienţe aproape de moarte - - Caracteristici - Viaţa de Apoi (Viaţa de după moarte) - - Filozofia vieţii de Apoi - - - Filozofia modernă - - - Filozofia procesului - - Ştiinţa despre viaţa de Apoi - Modele metafizice ale Vieţii de Apoi - - Reîncarnarea - - Raiul şi iadul - - Limbo - - Purgatoriul - Nemurirea - - Abordări ştiinţifice - - Abordări religioase - - Nemurirea biologică - - - Specii biologice nemuritoare - - - Evoluţia îmbătrânirii - - Speranţe privind nemurirea biologică umană - - - Substanţe care prelungesc durata de viaţă - - - Nemurirea tehnologică - - - Crionica - - - Încărcarea minţii la calculator - - - Cibernetica - - - Nemurirea evoluţionară - Strigoi - Fantome - - Tipologia - - - Context antropologic - - Fantomele şi viaţa de apoi - - Teama de fantome - - Atribute comune - - Locaţii - Locaţii paranormale - România - - Judeţul Bacău - - - Conacul Zarifopol, în Filipeşti - - Bucureşti - - - Mănăstirea Chiajna - - - Hotel Cişmigiu - - - "Casa Diavolului", pe strada General Praporgescu - - - Orfelinatul pe strada Franceză - - - Casa Vernescu pe Calea Victoriei - - - Iazul Vrăjitoarelor - - Judeţul Călăraşi - - - Pădurea Călugăreasa - - Judeţul Cluj - - - Castelul Bánffy - - - Pădurea Hoia - - Judeţul Dâmboviţa - - - Trinitatea Miresei pe DN7 - - Judeţul Dolj - - - Pădurea Radovan - - Judeţul Iaşi - - - Casa Gavril Buzatu pe Manta Roşie - - - Dealul Lunganilor - - Judeţul Maramureş - - - Drumul European E58 lângă Cicărlău Parapsihologia - Terminologie - Cercetări - - Domenii - - Metodologie - - Cercetări experimentale - Percepţiile extrasenzoriale - - Investigarea parapsihologică - - Percepţiile extrasenzoriale şi hipnoza - Psihochinezia (telechinezia) - - Credinţa - - - Subdomenii ale telechineziei - - - Aptitudini notabile ale capabilităţilor psihocinetice Ezoterism - Etimologie - Cosmologia ezoterică - - Gnosticism - - Cabala - - Neoplatonism - - Teosofia şi antroposofia - - Max Theon şi "filosofia cosmică" - Ocultism - - Ştiinţă şi ocultism - - - Calităţi oculte - Magia - - Caracteristici comune în practica magiei - - - Ritualuri - - - Simboluri magice - - - Limbajul magiei - - - Magicieni - - - Vrăjitoria - - Teorii - - - Origini antropologice şi psihologice - Clarviziunea - - Aspecte ale clarviziunii - - Vizualizarea de la distanţă - Geomanţia - Tarot - - Arcana mare şi arcana mică - - Utilizare - - - Cărţi inversate - - - Desfăşurări - Masoneria - - Istoria masoneriei - - Loja masonică - - Structura masoneriilor - - - Recunoaşterea masonică reciprocă - Taoism - - Categorisire - - Ceaiul şi taoismul - - Credinţe taoiste - - Principii - - - Tao - - - De (Te) - - - Wu wei - - - Pu - - Spiritualitatea - - Escatologia Astrologia - Principii şi practici - - Astrologia occidentală - - Astrologia hindusă - - Astrologia chineză şi din Asia de Est - Astrologia şi ştiinţa - - Delimitarea - Astrohărţi - Principiile de bază ale astrologiei - - Modele astrologice - - Astrologia predictivă - Tradiţii în astrologie - - Tradiţii istorice - - Tradiţii ezoterice - Horoscop - - Etimologie - - Concepte în astrologia occidentală - - - Unghiuri - - - Zodiacul - - - Case - - Construcţia unui horoscop în astrologia occidentală - - - Case - - - Plasamente ale planetelor - - - Aspecte - - - Ascendentul - - Horoscopul chinez - Bioritm - - Teoria - - Calculul - - Plauzibilitate Vrăjitoria - Definiţii - Practici invocate de vrăjitoare - - Descântece - - Invocarea morţii - Vrăjitoarele bune - Demonologia Referinţe Despre autor - Nicolae Sfetcu - - De același autor - - Contact Editura - MultiMedia Publishing . 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Un ghid util pentru începători în astrologie, cu informații practice și sfaturi utile despre erele astrologice, semnele astrologice, zodiac, horoscop, planete astrologice și astronomice, și despre astrologiile chineză, hindusă și occidentală. Aplicarea practică a astrologiei în diferite domenii ale activității umane. Principiile de bază ale astrologiei au fost stabilite în parte încă din antichitate, fiind rezumate în maxima hermetică “cum e sus, aşa şi jos“. Tycho Brahe a folosit o frază similară pentru a rezuma studiile SHOP SHOP SALE în astrologie: (...) suspiciendo despicio, “privind în sus văd în jos”. Multe tradiţii astrologice se bazează pe poziţiile şi mişcările relative ale diferitelor corpuri cereşti şi pe reţelele cereşti calculate sau implicate considerate la momentul şi locul evenimentului studiat. Sunt luate în considerare în special planetele astrologice, stelele, nodurile lunare, zonele arabe pentru calcularea horoscopului, şi planetele ipotetice. Modelul de referinţă pentru astfel de poziţii aparente este definit de zodiacul tropical sau sideral al celor douăsprezece semne pe de o parte, şi de orizontul local (axele ascendent – descendent) şi axele mediană a cerului – imum coeli (fundul cerului), pe de altă parte. Cel de al doilea model local este de obicei divizat în douăsprezece case astrologice. Mai departe, unghiurile planetare astrologice sunt folosite pentru a determina relaţiile geometrice / unghiulare dintre diferite corpuri şi unghiuri cereşti în calcularea horoscopului. În Occident, liderii politici au consultat adeseori astrologii. De exemplu, agenția de informații britanice MI5 a angajat pe Louis de Wohl ca astrolog după ce s-a aflat că Adolf Hitler a folosit astrologia pentru a stabili momentele acțiunilor SHOP SHOP SALE . După ce John Hinckley a avut o tentativă de asasinare a președintelui american Ronald Reagan, prima doamna Nancy Reagan a solicitat astrologului Joan Quigley să fie astrologul secret al Casei Albe. CUPRINS: Astrologia - Etimologie - Istoria - - Lumea antică - - Egiptul elenistic - - Grecia și Roma - - Evul Mediu - Principii și practici - - Principiile de bază ale astrologiei - - Astrologia occidentală - - Astrologia hindusă - - Astrologia chineză și din Asia de Est - Puncte de vedere teologice - - Antichitate - - Evul Mediu - - Epoca modernă - Analiza științifică și critici - - Demarcație - - Eficacitatea - - Lipsa de mecanisme și coerență - Impactul cultural - - Politica și societatea occidentală - - India și Japonia - - Literatură și muzică Ere astrologice - Aspecte controversate ale erelor astrologice - Abordarea consensului pentru erele astrologice - Ere de durate egale sau variabile - Tranziții ale erelor - Alte păreri cu privire la erele astrologice - Aspecte de calcul - - Primul punct de aliniere în Berbec - punctul fiduciar - Ere prezente și viitoare - - Era Peştilor - - Era Vărsătorului - Sub-perioadele erelor astrologice - - Subperioadele de la Berbec la Pești - - Subperioadele dwadasamsa - - Direcția subperioadelor (înainte sau retrograd?) - Mituri noi, alternative și marginale - - Abordarea alternativă la calibrarea precesiei Semne astrologice - Semnele zodiacale occidentale - - Istoria și simbolismul zodiacului - - Polaritatea și cele patru elemente - - Cele trei modalități - - Dominații planetare - - Demnitate și detriment, înălțare și cădere - - Clasificări suplimentare - Astrologia indiană - - Nakshatras - Semnele zodiacului chinezesc - - Simbolismul zodiacului - - Cele douăsprezece semne - - Cele cinci elemente - Zodiacul - - Nume - - Utilizare - - Constelații - - Tabel de date - - Precesiunea echinocțiilor - - În astronomia modernă - - Caractere Unicode Factori tehnici - Aspecte astrologice - - Abordare - - Aspecte majore - - - Conjuncția - - - Sextilul - aspect intermediar major/minor - - - Pătratul - - - Trigonul - - - Opoziţia - - - Declinări - Planete în astrologie - - Simbolism planetar - - - Mișcarea zilnică - - Istorie - - Planete clasice - - - Soare - - - Luna - - - Mercur - - - Venus - - - Marte - - - Jupiter - - - Saturn - - Planetele moderne - - - Uranus - - - Neptun - - - Pluto - - - Ceres Tradiţii în astrologie - Tradiţii istorice - Tradiţii ezoterice - Astrologia chineză - - China și Asia de Est - - Calendarul luni-solar - - - Tabel calendaristic de șaizeci de ani - Astrologia hindusă - - Istorie - - Astrologia hindusă modernă - - - Poziționarea astrologiei - - Elemente - - - Rāśi - semne zodiacale - - - Nakṣatra - case lunare - - - Daśā - perioade planetare - - - Graha - planete - - - Gochara - tranziții - - - Yoga - combinații planetare - - - Bhāva - case - - - Dṛṣṭi - aspecte - Astrologia occidentală - - Principii de bază - - Zodiac - - - Cele douăsprezece semne - - - Astrologia semnului Soarelui - - Planetele - - - Planetele clasice - - - Nodurile Lunii - - - Demnitate esențială Tipuri de astrologii - Astrologia medicală - - Prezentare generală - Astrologia orară - - Abordare - - Atribuirea caselor - - Întoarcerea diagramei - - Interpretare - Astrologia horoscopică - - Ramuri ale astrologiei horoscopice - - - Astrologia natală - - - Astrologia lumească - - - Astrologia alegerii - - - Astrologia orară - Astrologia natală - - Caracteristici importante - - Diagrama de ponderare - - - Ponderare de semn - - - Semnătura diagramei - - - Ponderare de casă - - Modelarea diagramei - - - Modele de aspecte - - - Emisfere - - - Modele Jones - - Evaluarea științifică - - - Experimentul Carlson - - - Dean si Kelly - - - Efectul Marte - Astrologia psihologică - - Origini - - Moştenirea jungiană - - Alte abordări psihologice - - Filozofie - - Critici - - Cercetare - Astrologia siderală și astrologia tropicală - - Istorie - - Tradiții siderale - - - Astrologia hindusă - - - Astrologia siderală occidentală - Astrologia semnului Soarelui - - Istorie - - Semnele Soarelui - Astrologia sinoptică . 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In this article, I seek to improve upon a definition of pseudoscience put forward by Sven Ove Hansson. I argue that not only does its use of ‘pseudoscientific statement’ as definiendum inadequately address the theoretical issue of demarcation, it also makes the definition inapt for practical demarcation. Moreover, I argue that Hanson’s definition subsumes statements and associated practices that are forms of bad science, resulting in an unfavourably wide concept. I try to save the definition from the brunt of this (...) critique by arguing that some pseudoscientific statements are particularly significant when demarcating a discipline as a pseudoscience. (shrink)

Post-truth has become a commonplace strategy. No longer are objective facts viewed as having evidentiary value; scientific knowledge is on a par with emotions or personal beliefs. We intend to show that in the context of post-truth, those proffering and receiving an assertion do not care about the truth-value of the assertion or about the best way to gather evidence concerning it. Such attitudes raise several questions about how relativism can be a corrupting influence in contemporary democracies. We will analyse (...) Steve Fuller’s use of the term «post-truth» – especially, the political connotations about epistemic democracy that he highlights. Instead, we offer a pragmatist defence of the truth and an alternative meaning of epistemic democracy. (shrink)

En el viatge a la recerca de la felicitat, Occident ha mirat moltes vegades Orient. Una cultura llunyana i desconeguda on sembla que alguns troben les respostes als dubtes que el seu món els planteja. Neix així un mercat de valors no borsari on es venen idees i formes d'entendre el món. Un joc molt lucratiu, però molt poc transformador.

e first group of articles attempt to give some insight into how we behave that is reasonably free of theoretical delusions. In the next three groups I comment on three of the principal delusions preventing a sustainable world— technology, religion and politics (cooperative groups). People believe that society can be saved by them, so I provide some suggestions in the rest of the book as to why this is unlikely via short articles and reviews of recent books by well-known writers. (...) -/- America and the world are in the process of collapse from excessive population growth, most of it for the last century and now all of it due to 3rd world people. Consumption of resources and the addition of 4 billion more ca. 2100 will collapse industrial civilization and bring about starvation, disease, violence and war on a staggering scale. Billions will die and nuclear war is all but certain. In America this is being hugely accelerated by massive immigration and immigrant reproduction, combined with abuses made possible by democracy. Depraved human nature inexorably turns the dream of democracy and diversity into a nightmare of crime and poverty. The root cause of collapse is the inability of our innate psychology to adapt to the modern world, which leads people to treat unrelated persons as though they had common interests. This, plus ignorance of basic biology and psychology, leads to the social engineering delusions of the partially educated who control democratic societies. Few understand that if you help one person you harm someone else—there is no free lunch and every single item anyone consumes destroys the earth beyond repair. Consequently, social policies everywhere are unsustainable and one by one all societies without stringent controls on selfishness will collapse into anarchy or dictatorship. Without dramatic and immediate changes, there is no hope for preventing the collapse of America, or any country that follows a democratic system. Hence my essay “Suicide by Democracy”. It is also now clear that the seven sociopaths who rule China are winning world war 3, and so my concluding essay on them. The only greater threat is Artificial Intelligence which I comment on briefly in the last paragraph. (shrink)

Die Medizin ist nur eines von vielen Beispielen, die zeigen, wie wichtig die Unterscheidung zwischen Wissenschaft und Pseudowissenschaft ist. Wer wissenschaftlich erforschte Arzneimittel verwendet, der maximiert seine Chance auf Heilung. Wer sich dagegen auf pseudowissenschaftliche Präparate verlässt, der verschenkt diese Chance oder schadet sich sogar. Aus diesem Grund ist die Frage, wie man Pseudowissenschaften erkennt, nicht nur von wissenschaftsphilosophischem Interesse. Es handelt sich dabei um eine enorm wichtige, lebenspraktische Frage. Der folgende Beitrag stellt zehn Kriterien vor, die bei der Unterscheidung (...) von Wissenschaft und Pseudowissenschaft helfen. (shrink)

Astrology, a pseudoscience, is highly popular in Turkey. Astrologers, who are its practitioners, produce discourses in the scientific field at the media and at their own platforms. Furthermore, it is possible to find some instances of astrology related activities in Turkish universities. In this article, demarcation of science from pseudoscience and the pseudoscientific status of astrology were discussed in a first place. Next, threats of astrological discourse within economic, educational and medical fields and their threats to society were expressed with (...) some examples. Instances of the astrological activities within higher education institutions, such as an astrology-based master degree thesis, the astrology certificate programs, and an astrology column in an official medical school magazine were evaluated, and it was put forward that they contributed to increase the level of threat and it was also claimed that the existence of astrological activities in the universities contradicts the main purpose and principles of the higher education. In conclusion, some regulatory actions like the implementation of the scientific literacy and demarcation problem to each level of educational curriculum, a general policy for excluding the pseudoscience from higher education institutions and a recommended health warning at the top of the astrology were suggested. (shrink)

According to Thagard, the behavior of practitioners of a field may also be used for demarcation between science and pseudoscience due to its social dimension in addition to the epistemic one. I defended the tendency of pseudoscientists to commit fallacies, and the number of fallacies they commit can be a secondary tool for demarcation problem and this tool is consistent with Thagardian approach. In this paper, I selected the astrology as the case and I revealed nine types of logical fallacies (...) frequently committed by astrologers while introducing their field and/or defending their claims against the scientific inquiries and refutation efforts. I also argued that recognizing these fallacies may help the audience to demarcate between the scientific and the pseudoscientific arguments. (shrink)

The Soviet resonance controversy was a chemical counterpart to Lysenkoism in which Soviet ideologues charged that Linus Pauling’s resonance concept was hostile to Marxism. We study it here to illustrate the role of social factors in science-faith dialogue. Because Soviet chemists were attentive to ideological dimensions of the controversy, they were not only willing to engage in public dialogue but also offered a response that decoupled the scientific aspects of resonance from ideological hostility, largely by modifying how they talked about (...) delocalized chemical bonds. This enabled them to criticize and reject a pseudoscientific alternative to resonance and to avoid a Lysenko-like takeover of theoretical chemistry without threatening the wider Soviet social system. A potential lesson is that Christians in science who wish to promote fellow believers’ acceptance of their work would do well to account for the role of ideology in religiously motivated antimainstream science efforts. (shrink)

During the mid 1970s, a host of philosophers, scientists, authors, and "rationalists" formally responded to what they felt was a growing social problem: the rise in paranormal and occult beliefs. Under the leadership of professor Paul Kurtz of the State University of New York at Buffalo, they formed the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal . This group encouraged a "scientific approach" to investigate paranormal and fringe claims, which included "pseudosciences" and belief systems such as astrology, (...) parapsychology, creationism, and UFOlogy. For over twenty years, they have provided a forum for the discussion, analysis, and evaluation of fringe fields. They have also promoted a practical skepticism, which advises a preliminary orientation of doubt, especially when a claim seems inconsistent with the results of science. ;Drawing source material mainly from the organization's chief publication, The Skeptical Inquirer, this study identifies and examines the ideas that guided CSICOP. This includes how its efforts have affected the larger discussion about the quality of public knowledge, particularly with respect to the application of reason to social problem solving. ;The study shows that CSICOP immediately faced two "threshold questions"---decisions about what claims should be investigated and how should they be evaluated---and that their implicit answers determined the group's direction. It identifies key areas of the CSICOP's contribution to public knowledge: promoting principles of inquiry and evaluation, addressing the problem of belief acquisition, connecting a truth claim with a theoretical mechanism, and clarifying the values of skepticism and critical thinking in practical terms. In addition, detailed case studies explore the group's skeptical reply to claims from three fringe fields: UFOlogy, parapsychology, and astrology. Criticisms of the group's orientation, arguments, and judgments are also presented and analyzed. Some values of studying the fringe sciences have been proposed, including how they might help identify errors within the more subtle discussions of science. (shrink)

I insightfully discuss the question: what is pseudoscience?

What sets the practice of rigorously tested, sound science apart from pseudoscience? In this volume, the contributors seek to answer this question, known to philosophers of science as “the demarcation problem.” This issue has a long history in philosophy, stretching as far back as the early twentieth century and the work of Karl Popper. But by the late 1980s, scholars in the field began to treat the demarcation problem as impossible to solve and futile to ponder. However, the essays that (...) Massimo Pigliucci and Maarten Boudry have assembled in this volume make a rousing case for the unequivocal importance of reflecting on the separation between pseudoscience and sound science. (shrink)

Feyerabend is well-known as a pluralist, and notorious for his defences of, and sympathetic references to, heterodox subjects, such as parapsychology. Focusing on the latter, I ask how we should understand the relationship between the pluralism and the defences, drawing on Marcello Truzzi's and Martin Gardner's remarks on Feyerabend along the way.

Fleck's Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact foregrounds claims traditionally excluded from reception, often regarded as opposed to fact, scientific claims that are increasingly seldom discussed in connection with philosophy of science save as examples of pseudoscience. I am especially concerned with scientists who question the epidemiological link between HIV and AIDS and who are thereby discounted—no matter their credentials, no matter the cogency of their arguments, no matter the sobriety of their statistics—but also with other classic examples of (...) so-called pseudoscience including homeopathy and other sciences, such as cold fusion. The pseudoscience version of the demarcation problem turns out to include some of the details that Latour articulates multifariously under a variety of species or kinds in his essay/interactive research project/monograph, ‘Biography of an Investigation’. Given the economic constraints of the current day, especially in the academy, the growing trend in almost all disc.. (shrink)

Ainsi pervertie, la science finit par dériver vers un spiritualisme malsain propre à créer la confusion entre physique des astres et métaphysique.

Laudan’s argument against the possibility of a demarcation criterion for scientific theories rests on establishing that any criterion must be a necessary and sufficient condition. But Laudan’s argument at most establishes that any criterion must provide a necessary condition and a possibly different sufficient condition. His own claims suggest that such a criterion is possible.

An argument is presented according to which exposing pseudo-scientific medical claims may be ethically wrong. It is then suggested that this argument gives an interesting explanation why the successful outing of pseudo-science may lead to an increase in medical pseudo-science overall.

This paper explores the relationship between epistemic integrity, virtue, and authority by offering a virtue epistemological reading of the defences of non-scientific beliefs, practices, and traditions in the writings of Paul Feyerabend. I argue that there was a robust epistemic rationale for those defences and that it can inform contemporary reflection on the epistemic authority of the sciences. Two common explanations of the purpose of those defences are rejected as lacking textual support. A third “pluralist” reading is judged more persuasive, (...) but found to be incomplete, owing to a failure to accommodate Feyerabend’s focus upon the integrity of scientists and the authority of science. I therefore suggest that the defences are more fully understood as defences of the epistemic integrity of scientists that take the form of critical exposures of failures by scientists to act with integrity. An appeal is made to contemporary virtue epistemology that clarifies Feyerabend’s implicit association of epistemic... (shrink)

Book review of " Massimo Pigliucci: Nonsense on stilts: How to tell science from bunk. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2010".

Hempel, Popper, and Kuhn argue that to be scientific is to be testable, to be falsifiable, and most nearly to do normal science, respectively. I argue that to be scientific is largely to be interactive, offering some examples from science to show that the ideas from different fields of science interact with one another. The results of the interactions are that hypotheses become more plausible, new phenomena are explained and predicted, we understand phenomena from a new perspective, and our worldview (...) becomes simpler. I also argue that given that the interactions are impressive features of science, astrology and religion would be regarded as science, provided that there are similar interactions in those enterprises. (shrink)

Review of Max Bennett's and Peter Hacker's book PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF NEUROSCIENCE, Oxford University Press 2003.

Using astrology as a case study, this paper attempts to establish a criterion for demarcating science from pseudoscience. Numerous reasons for considering astrology to be a pseudoscience are evaluated and rejected; verifiability and falsifiability are briefly discussed. A theory is said to be pseudoscientific if and only if (1) it has been less progressive than alternative theories over a long period of time, and faces many unsolved problems, but (2) the community of practitioners makes little attempt to develop the theory (...) towards solutions of the problems, shows no concern for attempts to evaluate the theory in relation to others, and is selective in considering confirmations and disconfirmations. This criterion has the interesting consequence that a theory can be scientific at one time but pseudoscientific at another. (shrink)

This paper examines the production and circulation of astrological prognostications regarding the illness and death of kings, princes, and popes in the Italian Renaissance . The distribution and consumption of this type of astrological information was often closely linked to the specific political situation in which they were produced. Depending on the astrological techniques used , and the media in which they appeared these prognostications fulfilled different functions in the information economy of Renaissance Italy. Some were used to legitimise the (...) rule of a political leader, others to do just the opposite. Astrological prorogations and interrogations were often used to plan military and political strategies in case of the illness or death of a political leader, while astrological prognostications were generally written to promote certain political leaders while undermining others. While certainly often partisan to this game, astrologers, for their part, worked within a very well established tradition that gave authority to their forecasts. This paper argues that, as indicators of deeper political tensions otherwise not always explicitly manifest, these prognostications are privileged sources of information providing a better understanding of the political history of the period. (shrink)

On the basis of the Suppes–Sneed structuralview of scientific theories, we take a freshlook at the concept of refutability,which was famously proposed by K.R. Popper in 1934 as a criterion for the demarcation of scientific theories from non-scientific ones, e.g., pseudo-scientificand metaphysical theories. By way of an introduction we argue that a clash between Popper and his critics on whether scientific theories are, in fact, refutablecan be partly explained by the fact Popper and his criticsascribed different meanings to the term (...) theoryThen we narrow our attention to one particular theory,namely quantum mechanics, in order to elucidate general matters discussed. We prove that quantum mechanics is irrefutable in a rather straightforward sense, but argue that it is refutable in a more sophisticated sense, which incorporates someobservations obtained by looking closely at the practiceof physics. We shall locate exactly where non-rigourous elements enter the evaluation of a scientific theory – thismakes us see clearly how fruitful mathematics isfor the philosophy of science. (shrink)

What is wrong with ad hoc hypotheses? Ever since Popper’s falsificationist account of adhocness, there has been a lively philosophical discussion about what constitutes adhocness in scientific explanation, and what, if anything, distinguishes legitimate auxiliary hypotheses from illicit ad hoc ones. This paper draws upon distinct examples from pseudoscience to provide us with a clearer view as to what is troubling about ad hoc hypotheses. In contrast with other philosophical proposals, our approach retains the colloquial, derogative meaning of adhocness, and (...) calls attention to the way in which the context of a theoretical move bears on the charge of adhocness. We also discuss the role of motivations implicit in the concept of adhocness, and the way ad hoc moves draw on theory-internal rationalizations. (shrink)

Some philosophers assert that astrology is a false theory. The simplest way to argue against all astrology is to identify a proposition that any kind of astrology must be committed to and then show that this proposition is false. In this paper I draw attention to some misconceptions about which propositions are essential to astrology.

I respond to two criticisms levelled by A. A. Derksen in a recent issue of this journal against characterizing pseudoscience as structurally flawed practice: I argue that he surreptitiously invokes this conception, his official view that we should concentrate on pseudoscientists' pretensions rather than their practices notwithstanding; and I critically examine his contention that judgements of scientificity (and pseudoscientificity) cannot properly be made independently of a consideration of whether the relevant theories and practices are empirically well-confirmed.

I criticize conceptual pluralism, as endorsed recently by John Dupre and Philip Kitcher, for failing to supply strategies for demarcating science from non-science. Using creation-science as a test case, I argue that pluralism blocks arguments that keep creation-science in check and that metaphysical pluralism offers it positive, metaphysical support. Logical empiricism, however, still provides useful resources to reconfigure and manage the problem of creation-science in those practical and political contexts where pluralism will fail.

By the late nineteenth century, science was well established in the public mind as the primary method by which useful knowledge of the material universe is obtained. Surely, it was thought, if science can discover cathode rays and radio waves, then it should easily authenticate a phenomenon that is far more widely experienced: the supernatural power of the human mind. Non-physical, “psychic” energy appeared to be everywhere, as an integral part of human experience. Indeed, psychic forces are seemingly built into (...) the cores, the souls, of each of us. It should be just a matter of securing the evidence with the hard cement of scientific procedure. At least this was the view of many Victorian scientists, and so was begun a program to verify psychic phenomena scientifically, a task that has continued without success until the current day. By the time the fourth decade of the twentieth century was underway, the search for psychic energy had stalled. The huge database of anecdotal human testimony proved too unreliable, too easy to explain away as subjective desire, fakery, or delusion. Whenever serious attempts were made to gather objective data under controlled conditions, plausible explanations such as trickery or simple coincidence were readily found--if not by the investigators, then by their critics. Although these plausibilities were not always conclusively proven, they were never conclusively ruled out. And, as long as ordinary explanations for reports of suggested psychic phenomena.. (shrink)

Social constructivist approaches to science have often been dismissed as inaccurate accounts of scientific knowledge. In this article, we take the claims of robust social constructivism (SC) seriously and attempt to find a theory which does instantiate the epistemic predicament as described by SC. We argue that Freudian psychoanalysis, in virtue of some of its well-known epistemic complications and conceptual confusions, provides a perfect illustration of what SC claims is actually going on in science. In other words, the features SC (...) mistakenly ascribes to science in general correctly characterize the epistemic status of Freudian psychoanalysis. This sheds some light on the internal disputes in the field of psychoanalysis, on the sociology of psychoanalytic movement, and on the “war” that has been waged over Freud's legacy with his critics. In addition, our analysis offers an indirect and independent argument against SC as an account of bona fide science, by illustrating what science would look like if it were to function as SC claims it does. (shrink)

Chapter discussing what it takes for an activity to be an instance of scientific research.

This paper evaluates an argument for the conclusion that in order to produce a viable objection to a particular error theory, the objection must not be applicable to any error theory. The reason given for this conclusion is that error theories about some discourses are uncontroversial. But the examples given of uncontroversial error theories are not good ones, nor do there appear to be other examples available.

In this paper, we aim to show that there is a particular kind of bullshit that is not dealt with in Harry Frankfurt’s and G.A. Cohen’s critiques of bullshit. We also point out the evaluative complexity of bullshit. Frankfurt and Cohen both stress its negative and possibly destructive aspects, but one might wonder whether bullshit need always and necessarily be reprehensible. We will argue that there are positive or at least neutral aspects to some kinds of bullshit.

Science fans (minjian kexue aihaozhe) are a special group devoted to so-called scientific activities outside of the science community. They are different from amateur scientists (or science amateur) (yeyu kexue aihaozhe) in the way that they do not have proper channels for communication with the scientific community. The populations of Science fans' numbers increased sharply in the early 1980's in China because of the social environment, the public perception of science at that time, the misunderstanding of scientific activities by mass (...) media, and the paranoid tendencies of science fans themselves. Research upon science fans can address the problem they have caused and provide some advice on the development of science communication in China. (shrink)

My criticisms of parapsychology are neither based on its subject matter per se, nor simply on a charge of sloppy research, but rather on the whole pattern of theory and research in this domain. The lack of a positive definition of psi, the use of ad hoc principles such as psi-missing and the experimenter psi effect to account for failures to confirm hypotheses, and the failure to produce a single phenomenon that can be replicated by neutral investigators are among the (...) major problems that keep parapsychology outside regular science. Glicksohn and I agree that anomalous experiences should be investigated. (shrink)