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Pseudoscience and pseudo-philosophy
Here are some examples of really, really bad science and philosophy
My Philosophy as Way of Life (PWOL) series of essays has now being going on since July 2018, and has produced 403 articles and counting. Naturally, people have a tendency to focus on the latest entries, but — if I may be forgiven for saying so — some of the early ones are worth reading as well. Which is why I am proposing this occasional series meant to highlight early PWOL entries grouped by interesting themes.
Today we are going to revisit some essays on what philosophers refer to as the demarcation problem: how do we distinguish between science and pseudoscience? And, I might add, how do we, analogously, separate philosophy from pseudophilosophy? I have written a couple of books on this that you may want to check out. The term “pseudo” is, of course, pejorative, so some people may object to the entire enterprise. But I think it’s pretty fair to say, for instance, that fundamental physics clearly is science while astrology, for example, just as clearly is pseudoscience. Which doesn’t mean there aren’t intermediate, more complex cases that may require in-depth discussion. Take a look at this sampler and see what you think. (Follow the links for the full text.)
