Pseudoscience : A Very Short Introduction

Michael D Gordin

ISBN 10: 0190944420 / ISBN 13: 9780190944421

Published by Oxford University Press Apr 2023, 2023

About this Item

Neuware - Many people would be able to agree on a list of things that fall under the umbrella of pseudoscience - astrology, phrenology, UFOlogy, creationism, and eugenics might come to mind. But defining what makes these fields 'pseudo' and differentiates them from genuine science is a far more complex issue. Pseudoscience: A Very Short Introduction explores the philosophical and historical attempts to address this problem of demarcation. Michael D. Gordin guides readers along a bewildering array of marginalized doctrines, focusing on some of the central debates about what science is and is not, and how such controversies have shifted over the centuries. This Very Short Introduction provides a historical tour through various theories, providing readers with the tools to think deeply about scientific controversies both past and present.

Seller Inventory # 9780190944421

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Pseudoscience : A Very Short Introduction
• Publisher: Oxford University Press Apr 2023
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0190944420
• ISBN 13: 9780190944421
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 170W x 107H x 11D millimeters 170 millimeters width by 107 millimeters height by 11 millimeters depth
• Weight: 128 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Everyone has heard of the term "pseudoscience," typically used to describe something that looks like science, but is somehow false, misleading, or unproven. Many would be able to agree on a list of things that fall under its umbrella - astrology, phrenology, UFOlogy, creationism, and eugenics might come to mind. But defining what makes these fields “pseudo” is a far more complex issue. It has proved impossible to come up with a simple criterion that enables us to differentiate pseudoscience from genuine science. Given the virulence of contemporary disputes over the denial of climate change and anti-vaccination movements - both of which display allegations of “pseudoscience” on all sides - there is a clear need to better understand issues of scientific demarcation.

Pseudoscience: A Very Short Introduction explores the philosophical and historical attempts to address this problem of demarcation. This book argues that by understanding doctrines that are often seen as antithetical to science, we can learn a great deal about how science operated in the past and does today. This exploration raises several questions: How does a doctrine become demonized as pseudoscientific? Who has the authority to make these pronouncements? How is the status of science shaped by political or cultural contexts? How does pseudoscience differ from scientific fraud?

Michael D. Gordin both answers these questions and guides readers along a bewildering array of marginalized doctrines, looking at parapsychology (ESP), Lysenkoism, scientific racism, and alchemy, among others, to better understand the struggle to define what science is and is not, and how the controversies have shifted over the centuries. Pseudoscience: A Very Short Introduction provides a historical tour through many of these fringe fields in order to provide tools to think deeply about scientific controversies both in the past and in our present.

About the Author

Michael D. Gordin is Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and the director of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts at Princeton University. He specializes in the history of modern science in Russia, Europe, and North America, in particular on issues related to the history of fringe science, the early years of the nuclear arms race, Russian and Soviet science, language and science, and Albert Einstein. He is the author of The Pseudoscience Wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the Birth of the Modern Fringe, Scientific Babel: How Science Was Done Before and After Global English, and Red Cloud at Dawn: Truman, Stalin, and the End of the Atomic Monopoly.