- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Foreword: Navigating a Post-Truth World: Ten Enduring Lessons from the Study of Pseudoscience
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Pseudoscience: What It Costs and Efforts to Fight It
-
1 Pseudoscience and the Pursuit of Truth -
2 The Psychology of (Pseudo)Science: Cognitive, Social, and Cultural Factors -
3 The Illusion of Causality: A Cognitive Bias Underlying Pseudoscience -
4 Hard Science, Soft Science, and Pseudoscience: Implications of Research on the Hierarchy of the Sciences -
5 Food-o-science Pseudoscience: The Weapons and Tactics in the War on Crop Biotechnology -
6 An Inside Look at Naturopathic Medicine: A Whistleblower’s Deconstruction of Its Core Principles -
7 Risky Play and Growing Up: How to Understand the Overprotection of the Next Generation -
8 The Anti-Vaccine Movement: A Litany of Fallacy and Errors -
9 Understanding Pseudoscience Vulnerability through Epistemological Development, Critical Thinking, and Science Literacy -
10 Scientific Failure as a Public Good: Illustrating the Process of Science and Its Contrast with Pseudoscience -
11 Evidence-Based Practice as a Driver of Pseudoscience in Prevention Research -
12 Scientific Soundness and the Problem of Predatory Journals -
13 Pseudoscience, Coming to a Peer-Reviewed Journal Near You -
14 “Integrative” Medicine: Integrating Quackery with Science-Based Medicine -
15 Hypnosis: Science, Pseudoscience, and Nonsense -
16 Abuses and Misuses of Intelligence Tests: Facts and Misconceptions -
17 Reflections on Pseudoscience and Parapsychology: From Here to There and (Slightly) Back Again -
18 Using Case Studies to Combat a Pseudoscience Culture -
19 “HIV Does Not Cause AIDS”: A Journey into AIDS Denialism -
20 Swaying Pseudoscience: The Inoculation Effect -
21 The Challenges of Changing Minds: How Confirmation Bias and Pattern Recognition Affect Our Search for Meaning -
22 Truth Shall Prevail - Contributor List
- Index
Pseudoscience and the Pursuit of Truth
Pseudoscience and the Pursuit of Truth
- Chapter:
- (p.3) 1 Pseudoscience and the Pursuit of Truth
- Source:
- Pseudoscience
- Author(s):
David K. Hecht
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
This article takes a historical and cultural approach to pseudoscience, arguing that it can never be definitively demarcated from real science. It suggests that the persistence of pseudoscience throughout history, and particular in its recent American incarnations, can teach us a lot about why people place trust in the information sources that they do. Ultimately, the history of pseudoscience suggests that we place too much faith in science itself.
Keywords: history of science, American history, demarcation fallacy
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Foreword: Navigating a Post-Truth World: Ten Enduring Lessons from the Study of Pseudoscience
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Pseudoscience: What It Costs and Efforts to Fight It
-
1 Pseudoscience and the Pursuit of Truth -
2 The Psychology of (Pseudo)Science: Cognitive, Social, and Cultural Factors -
3 The Illusion of Causality: A Cognitive Bias Underlying Pseudoscience -
4 Hard Science, Soft Science, and Pseudoscience: Implications of Research on the Hierarchy of the Sciences -
5 Food-o-science Pseudoscience: The Weapons and Tactics in the War on Crop Biotechnology -
6 An Inside Look at Naturopathic Medicine: A Whistleblower’s Deconstruction of Its Core Principles -
7 Risky Play and Growing Up: How to Understand the Overprotection of the Next Generation -
8 The Anti-Vaccine Movement: A Litany of Fallacy and Errors -
9 Understanding Pseudoscience Vulnerability through Epistemological Development, Critical Thinking, and Science Literacy -
10 Scientific Failure as a Public Good: Illustrating the Process of Science and Its Contrast with Pseudoscience -
11 Evidence-Based Practice as a Driver of Pseudoscience in Prevention Research -
12 Scientific Soundness and the Problem of Predatory Journals -
13 Pseudoscience, Coming to a Peer-Reviewed Journal Near You -
14 “Integrative” Medicine: Integrating Quackery with Science-Based Medicine -
15 Hypnosis: Science, Pseudoscience, and Nonsense -
16 Abuses and Misuses of Intelligence Tests: Facts and Misconceptions -
17 Reflections on Pseudoscience and Parapsychology: From Here to There and (Slightly) Back Again -
18 Using Case Studies to Combat a Pseudoscience Culture -
19 “HIV Does Not Cause AIDS”: A Journey into AIDS Denialism -
20 Swaying Pseudoscience: The Inoculation Effect -
21 The Challenges of Changing Minds: How Confirmation Bias and Pattern Recognition Affect Our Search for Meaning -
22 Truth Shall Prevail - Contributor List
- Index
