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How do you define pseudoscience? On the Fringe by Michael D. Gordin; reviewed by Tom Siegfried.
On the Fringe
Michael D. Gordin
Oxford Univ., $18.95
There is no such thing as pseudoscience, and Michael Gordin has written a book about it.
In On the Fringe, Gordin, a historian at Princeton University, does not deny that there are endeavors afoot in the world that are labeled pseudoscience. Rather he shows that the term has no precise meaning, and that there is no unambiguous, universal test for delineating true science from the false versions on its fringe.
Many well-known examples of pseudoscience, he notes, were once mainstream scientific disciplines. Astrology, for instance, was for centuries respected or practiced by the most prominent scientific thinkers of their time.
Astrology’s time is long past, of course. So Gordin refers to it, and alchemy, and eugenics, as vestigial sciences — once regarded as totally scientific, but cast aside into the pseudoscience realm by the advance of knowledge.
Other pseudosciences arise having never attained respectable scientific status. Some are ideologically driven “hyperpoliticized” sciences; some, like creationism, are “counterestablishment” ventures that feign scientific trappings; others are wishful thinking delusions like extrasensory perception.
Advocates for many such pseudosciences seek legitimacy by imitating the scientific process — holding conferences, publishing journals and claiming to cite evidence (though presented in ways riddled with logical fallacies).
The problem is, “real” science also sometimes suffers from errors of rigor and logic, as recent concerns about reproducing experimental results have demonstrated (SN: 3/27/10, p. 26). So drawing a sharp line between real and pseudo remains a difficult task. ...
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/on-the-fringe-book-science-pseudoscience
‘On the Fringe’ explores the thin line between science and pseudoscience
In his latest book, historian Michael Gordin shows how hard it is to define pseudoscience
On the Fringe
Michael D. Gordin
Oxford Univ., $18.95
There is no such thing as pseudoscience, and Michael Gordin has written a book about it.
In On the Fringe, Gordin, a historian at Princeton University, does not deny that there are endeavors afoot in the world that are labeled pseudoscience. Rather he shows that the term has no precise meaning, and that there is no unambiguous, universal test for delineating true science from the false versions on its fringe.
Many well-known examples of pseudoscience, he notes, were once mainstream scientific disciplines. Astrology, for instance, was for centuries respected or practiced by the most prominent scientific thinkers of their time.
Astrology’s time is long past, of course. So Gordin refers to it, and alchemy, and eugenics, as vestigial sciences — once regarded as totally scientific, but cast aside into the pseudoscience realm by the advance of knowledge.
Other pseudosciences arise having never attained respectable scientific status. Some are ideologically driven “hyperpoliticized” sciences; some, like creationism, are “counterestablishment” ventures that feign scientific trappings; others are wishful thinking delusions like extrasensory perception.
Advocates for many such pseudosciences seek legitimacy by imitating the scientific process — holding conferences, publishing journals and claiming to cite evidence (though presented in ways riddled with logical fallacies).
The problem is, “real” science also sometimes suffers from errors of rigor and logic, as recent concerns about reproducing experimental results have demonstrated (SN: 3/27/10, p. 26). So drawing a sharp line between real and pseudo remains a difficult task. ...
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/on-the-fringe-book-science-pseudoscience