Details e-Book Philosophy of Pseudoscience
đ¸ Author(s): Massimo Pigliucci
đ¸ Title: Philosophy of Pseudoscience
đ¸ Rating : 82X from 5 stars ( reviews)
đ¸ Format ebook: PDF, EPUB, Kindle, Audio, HTML and MOBI
đ¸ Supported Devices: Android, iOS, MacOS, PC and Amazon Kindle
âA remarkable contribution to one of the most vexing problems in science: the âdemarcationâ problem, or how to distinguish science from nonscience.â âFrancisco J. Ayala, author of Darwinâs Gift to Science and Religion 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 âthe demarcation problem.â 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 parentsâ decisions to vaccinate children and governmentsâ 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 isnât. âA manual to overcome our natural cognitive biases.â âCorriere della Sera (Italy)