Pseudoscience: The Conspiracy Against Science
Allison B. Kaufman and James C. Kaufman
Abstract
In a post-truth, fake news world, we are particularly susceptible to the claims of pseudoscience. When emotions and opinions are more widely disseminated than scientific findings, and self-proclaimed experts get their expertise from Google, how can the average person distinguish real science from fake? This book examines pseudoscience from a variety of perspectives, through case studies, analysis, and personal accounts that show how to recognize pseudoscience, why it is so widely accepted, and how to advocate for real science. Contributors examine the basics of pseudoscience, including issues ... More
In a post-truth, fake news world, we are particularly susceptible to the claims of pseudoscience. When emotions and opinions are more widely disseminated than scientific findings, and self-proclaimed experts get their expertise from Google, how can the average person distinguish real science from fake? This book examines pseudoscience from a variety of perspectives, through case studies, analysis, and personal accounts that show how to recognize pseudoscience, why it is so widely accepted, and how to advocate for real science. Contributors examine the basics of pseudoscience, including issues of cognitive bias; the costs of pseudoscience, with accounts of naturopathy and logical fallacies in the anti-vaccination movement; perceptions of scientific soundness; the mainstream presence of “integrative medicine,” hypnosis, and parapsychology; and the use of case studies and new media in science advocacy.
Keywords:
history of science,
American history,
demarcation fallacy,
scientific thinking,
pseudoscience,
belief revision,
cultural identity,
scientific literacy,
heuristics,
visual illusions,
cognitive bias,
casuality,
hard and soft science,
Comtean hierarchy,
naturalism,
parsimony,
falsifiability,
objectivity,
naturopathy,
alternative medicine,
homeopathy,
vaccines,
cancer,
quackery,
peer review
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2018 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780262037426 |
| Published to MIT Press Scholarship Online: September 2018 |
DOI:10.7551/mitpress/9780262037426.001.0001 |
