Science, Pseudoscience and Parascience

Věda, pseudověda a paravěda

Filip Tvrdý

E-LOGOS, 2020, vol. 2020, issue 2, 4-17

Abstract: Finding the demarcation criterion for the identification of scientific knowledge is the most important task of normative epistemology. Pseudoscience is not a harmless leisure activity, it can pose a danger to the functioning of liberal democratic societies and the well-being of their citizens. First, there is an outline of how to define science instrumentally without slipping into the detrimental heritage of conceptual essentialism. The second part is dedicated to Popper's falsification criterion and the objections of its opponents, which eventually led to the abandonment of "naïve" falsificationism. Then I present two promising solutions to the problem, namely the ostensive definition of pseudoscience and the cognitive research of pseudoscientific thinking. In conclusion, I suggest to further extend the typology of alternatives to science to include parascience.

Keywords: epistemology; philosophy of science; pseudoscience; cognitive psychology; argumentation; epistemic vices; epistemologie; filozofie vědy; pseudověda; kognitivní psychologie; argumentace; epistemické neřesti (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://elogos.vse.cz/doi/10.18267/j.e-logos.474.html (text/html)
http://elogos.vse.cz/doi/10.18267/j.e-logos.474.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:prg:jnlelg:v:2020:y:2020:i:2:id:474:p:4-17

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Katedra filosofie, Národohospodářská fakulta, Vysoká škole ekonomická v Praze, Nám. W. Churchilla 4, 130 67 Praha 3, Česká republika
http://elogos.vse.cz

DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.474

Access Statistics for this article

E-LOGOS is currently edited by Miroslav Vacura

More articles in E-LOGOS from Prague University of Economics and Business Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Stanislav Vojir ().