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Philosophy of Pseudoscience

Philosophy of Pseudoscience

Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem

by Massimo Pigliucci and Maarten Boudry
Hardback
Publication Date: 16/08/2013

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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.
ISBN:
9780226051796
9780226051796
Category:
Philosophy of science
Format:
Hardback
Publication Date:
16-08-2013
Language:
English
Publisher:
The University of Chicago Press
Country of origin:
United States
Pages:
480
Dimensions (mm):
24x17x3mm
Weight:
0.96kg

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