Philosophy of pseudoscience : reconsidering the demarcation problem / edited by Massimo Pigliucci and Maarten Boudry.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Pigliucci, Massimo, 1964-

Boudry, Maarten, 1984-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pseudoscience.

Science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (479 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Introduction: why the demarcation problem matters / Massimo Pigliucci and Maarten Boudry

What's the problem with the demarcation problem? The demarcation problem: a (belated) response to Laudan / Massimo Pigliucci ; Science and pseudoscience: how to demarcate after the (alleged) demise of the demarcation problem? / Martin Mahner ; Toward a demarcation of science from pseudoscience / James Ladyman ; Defining pseudoscience and science / Sven Ove Hansson ; Loki's Wager and Laudan's error: on genuine and territorial demarcation / Maarten Boudry

History and sociology of pseudoscience. The problem of demarcation: history and future / Thomas Nickles ; Science, pseudoscience, and science falsely so-called / Daniel P. Thurs and Ronald L. Numbers ; Paranormalism and pseudoscience as deviance / Erich Goode

Belief buddies versus critical communities: the social organization of pseudoscience / Noretta Koertge

The borderlands between science and pseudoscience. Science and the messy, uncontrollable world of nature / Carol E. Cleland and Sheralee Brindell ; Science and pseudoscience: the difference in practice and the difference it makes / Michael Shermer ; Evolution: from pseudoscience to popular science, from popular science to professional science / Michael Ruse

Science and the supernatural. Is a science of the supernatural possible? / Evan Fales ; Navigating the landscape between science and religious pseudoscience: can Hume help? / Barbara Forrest

True believers and their tactics. Argumentation and pseudoscience: the case for an ethics of argumentation / Jean Paul van Bendegem ; Why alternative medicine can be scientifically evaluated: countering the evasions of pseudoscience / Jesper Jerkert ; Pseudoscience: the case of Freud's sexual etiology of the neuroses / Frank Cioffi ; The Holocaust denier's playbook and the tobacco smokescreen: common threads in the thinking and tactics of denialists and pseudoscientists / Donald Prothero

The cognitive roots of pseudoscience. Evolved to be irrational?: evolutionary and cognitive foundations of pseudosciences / Stefaan Blancke and Johan de Smedt ; Werewolves in scientists' clothing: understanding pseudoscientific cognition / Konrad Talmont-Kaminski ; The Salem region: two mindsets about science / John S. Wilkins

Pseudoscience and idiosyncratic theories of rational belief / Nicholas Shackel

Agentive thinking and illusions of understanding / Filip Buekens.

pt. 1. What's the problem with the demarcation problem?

pt. 2. History and sociology of pseudoscience

pt. 3. The borderlands between science and pseudoscience

pt. 4. Science and the supernatural

pt. 5. True believers and their tactics

pt. 6. The cognitive roots of pseudoscience.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780226051963

022605196X

9780226051826

022605182X

OCLC:

852896293