Philosophy of pseudoscience : reconsidering the demarcation problem /
Philosophy of pseudoscience : reconsidering the demarcation problem /
edited by Massimo Pigliucci and Maarten Boudry.
- Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, (c)2013.
- 1 online resource (469 pages)
Includes bibliographies and index.
Introduction: why the demarcation problem matters / What's the problem with the demarcation problem? The demarcation problem: a (belated) response to Laudan / Science and pseudoscience: how to demarcate after the (alleged) demise of the demarcation problem? / Toward a demarcation of science from pseudoscience / Defining pseudoscience and science / Loki's wager and Laudan's error: on genuine and territorial demarcation / History and sociology of pseudoscience. The problem of demarcation: history and future / Science, pseudoscience, and science falsely so-called / Paranormalism and pseudoscience as deviance / Belief buddies versus critical communities: the social organization of pseudoscience / The borderlands between science and pseudoscience. Science and the messy, uncontrollable world of nature / Science and pseudoscience: the difference in practice and the difference it makes / Evolution: from pseudoscience to popular science, from popular science to professional science / Science and the supernatural. Is a science of the supernatural possible? / Navigating the landscape between science and religious pseudoscience: can Hume help? / True believers and their tactics. Argumentation and pseudoscience: the case for an ethics of argumentation / Why alternative medicine can be scientifically evaluated: countering the evasions of pseudoscience / Pseudoscience: the case of Freud's sexual etiology of the neuroses / The Holocaust denier's playbook and the tobacco smokescreen: common threads in the thinking and tactics of denialists and pseudoscientists / The cognitive roots of pseudoscience. Evolved to be irrational?: evolutionary and cognitive foundations of pseudosciences / Werewolves in scientists' clothing: understanding pseudoscientific cognition / The Salem region: two mindsets about science / Pseudoscience and idiosyncratic theories of rational belief / Agentive thinking and illusions of understanding / Massimo Pigliucci and Maarten Boudry -- Massimo Pigliucci -- Martin Mahner -- James Ladyman -- Sven Ove Hansson -- Maarten Boudry -- Thomas Nickles -- Daniel P. Thurs and Ronald L. Numbers -- Erich Goode -- Noretta Koertge -- Carol E. Cleland and Sheralee Brindell -- Michael Shermer -- Michael Ruse -- Evan Fales -- Barbara Forrest -- Jean Paul van Bendegem -- Jesper Jerkert -- Frank Cioffi -- Donald Prothero -- Stefaan Blancke and Johan de Smedt -- Konrad Talmont-Kaminski -- John S. Wilkins -- Nicholas Shackel -- Filip Buekens.
"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. Moreover, the demarcation problem is not a purely theoretical dilemma of mere academic interest: it affects parents' decisions to vaccinate children and governments' willingness to adopt policies that prevent climate change. Pseudoscience often mimics science, using the superficial language and trappings of actual scientific research to seem more respectable. Even a well-informed public can be taken in by such questionable theories dressed up as science. Pseudoscientific beliefs compete with sound science on the health pages of newspapers for media coverage and in laboratories for research funding. Now more than ever the ability to separate genuine scientific findings from spurious ones is vital, and The Philosophy of Pseudoscience provides ground for philosophers, sociologists, historians, and laypeople to make decisions about what science is or isn't"--Provided by publisher.
9780226051826
Pseudoscience.
Science.
Electronic Books.
Q172 / .P455 2013
Includes bibliographies and index.
Introduction: why the demarcation problem matters / What's the problem with the demarcation problem? The demarcation problem: a (belated) response to Laudan / Science and pseudoscience: how to demarcate after the (alleged) demise of the demarcation problem? / Toward a demarcation of science from pseudoscience / Defining pseudoscience and science / Loki's wager and Laudan's error: on genuine and territorial demarcation / History and sociology of pseudoscience. The problem of demarcation: history and future / Science, pseudoscience, and science falsely so-called / Paranormalism and pseudoscience as deviance / Belief buddies versus critical communities: the social organization of pseudoscience / The borderlands between science and pseudoscience. Science and the messy, uncontrollable world of nature / Science and pseudoscience: the difference in practice and the difference it makes / Evolution: from pseudoscience to popular science, from popular science to professional science / Science and the supernatural. Is a science of the supernatural possible? / Navigating the landscape between science and religious pseudoscience: can Hume help? / True believers and their tactics. Argumentation and pseudoscience: the case for an ethics of argumentation / Why alternative medicine can be scientifically evaluated: countering the evasions of pseudoscience / Pseudoscience: the case of Freud's sexual etiology of the neuroses / The Holocaust denier's playbook and the tobacco smokescreen: common threads in the thinking and tactics of denialists and pseudoscientists / The cognitive roots of pseudoscience. Evolved to be irrational?: evolutionary and cognitive foundations of pseudosciences / Werewolves in scientists' clothing: understanding pseudoscientific cognition / The Salem region: two mindsets about science / Pseudoscience and idiosyncratic theories of rational belief / Agentive thinking and illusions of understanding / Massimo Pigliucci and Maarten Boudry -- Massimo Pigliucci -- Martin Mahner -- James Ladyman -- Sven Ove Hansson -- Maarten Boudry -- Thomas Nickles -- Daniel P. Thurs and Ronald L. Numbers -- Erich Goode -- Noretta Koertge -- Carol E. Cleland and Sheralee Brindell -- Michael Shermer -- Michael Ruse -- Evan Fales -- Barbara Forrest -- Jean Paul van Bendegem -- Jesper Jerkert -- Frank Cioffi -- Donald Prothero -- Stefaan Blancke and Johan de Smedt -- Konrad Talmont-Kaminski -- John S. Wilkins -- Nicholas Shackel -- Filip Buekens.
"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. Moreover, the demarcation problem is not a purely theoretical dilemma of mere academic interest: it affects parents' decisions to vaccinate children and governments' willingness to adopt policies that prevent climate change. Pseudoscience often mimics science, using the superficial language and trappings of actual scientific research to seem more respectable. Even a well-informed public can be taken in by such questionable theories dressed up as science. Pseudoscientific beliefs compete with sound science on the health pages of newspapers for media coverage and in laboratories for research funding. Now more than ever the ability to separate genuine scientific findings from spurious ones is vital, and The Philosophy of Pseudoscience provides ground for philosophers, sociologists, historians, and laypeople to make decisions about what science is or isn't"--Provided by publisher.
9780226051826
Pseudoscience.
Science.
Electronic Books.
Q172 / .P455 2013