On the Fringe
Where Science Meets Pseudoscience
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- €11.99
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- €11.99
Publisher Description
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.
On the Fringe 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. On the Fringe 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gordin (Einstein in Bohemia), a science historian, takes readers on a revelatory tour of pseudoscience and what lessons can be learned from it. "Pseudoscience is a lot like heresy: if the label sticks, persecution follows," Gordin declares, breaking fringe beliefs down into four broad categories and providing historical context. Vestigial sciences are those which were once considered mainstream domains of scientific research, but have since been relegated to the dustbin of history, such as alchemy and astrology. Hyperpoliticized sciences are "arms of a particular political ideology," among them"Lysenkoism," an unproven method of genetically modifying crops that arose in the U.S.S.R. (Despite pushback from geneticists, Stalin claimed it was the only legitimate science and declared classical genetics pseudoscience.) "Counterestablishment" sciences, including UFOlogy, mimic structures in mainstream science such as journals and conferences, while the parapsychological sciences include extrasensory perception, which Gordin refers to as "one of the most widely known" pseudosciences. Gordin does not offer an easy answer to his question of "what is to be done?" and instead suggests that a better understanding of fringe science's history will allow readers to recognize the few that may "cause significant public harm." This will be helpful to anyone curious about how to separate the wheat of science from the chaff of pseudoscience.
