- 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
Truth Shall Prevail
Truth Shall Prevail
- Chapter:
- (p.467) 22 Truth Shall Prevail
- Source:
- Pseudoscience
- Author(s):
- Paul Joseph Barnett, James C. Kaufman
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
The ultimate goal of science is to discover truth. Like all human endeavors, science is prone to mistakes, but by its nature it perpetually revisits and corrects past errors and misunderstandings. Proponents of pseudoscience are a constant impediment to progress. They spread half-truths, misinterpretations, and outright lies to advance their cause. They prefer anecdotes to evidence, and are less concerned about proving they’re right than they are with persuading other to believe science might be wrong. Billions have been spent, hundreds of lives lost, and countless resources and work hours have been wasted in this battle between evidence-based science, and pseudoscience. It is easy to become frustrated or to lose hope, but giving up is not the answer. Promoting critical thinking in every aspect of society and engaging with acolytes of pseudoscience will help repair the damage they’ve caused and develop a more empirically oriented culture.
Keywords: Truth, media, trust, cost to society
MIT Press Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
- 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