Description

Everyone has heard of the term pseudoscience typically used to describe something that looks like science but is somehow false misleading or unproven Given the virulence of contemporary disputes over the denial of climate change and antivaccination movementsboth of which display allegations of pseudoscience on all sidesthere 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 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 listeners 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 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