- Title Pages
- Introduction Why the Demarcation Problem Matters
- 1 The Demarcation Problem
- 2 Science and Pseudoscience
- 3 Toward a Demarcation of Science from Pseudoscience
- 4 Defining Pseudoscience and Science
- 5 Loki's Wager and Laudan's Error
- 6 The Problem of Demarcation
- 7 Science, Pseudoscience, and Science Falsely So-Called
- 8 Paranormalism and Pseudoscience as Deviance
- 9 Belief Buddies versus Critical Communities
- 10 Science and the Messy, Uncontrollable World of Nature
- 11 Science and Pseudoscience
- 12 Evolution
- 13 Is a Science of the Supernatural Possible?
- 14 Navigating the Landscape between Science and Religious Pseudoscience
- 15 Argumentation and Pseudoscience
- 16 Why Alternative Medicine Can Be Scientifically Evaluated
- 17 Pseudoscience
- 18 The Holocaust Denier's Playbook and the Tobacco Smokescreen
- 19 Evolved to Be Irrational?
- 20 Werewolves in Scientists' Clothing
- 21 The Salem Region
- 22 Pseudoscience and Idiosyncratic Theories of Rational Belief
- 23 Agentive Thinking and Illusions of Understanding
- Contributors
- Index
Why Alternative Medicine Can Be Scientifically Evaluated
Why Alternative Medicine Can Be Scientifically Evaluated
Countering the Evasions of Pseudoscience
- Chapter:
- (p.305) 16 Why Alternative Medicine Can Be Scientifically Evaluated
- Source:
- Philosophy of Pseudoscience
- Author(s):
Jesper Jerkert
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
The validity of clinical trials for certain alternative treatments has been called into question by supporters of unconventional and pseudoscientific practices, who criticize the way their beliefs are investigated scientifically or the verdicts reached by science. This chapter focuses on the following basic question: what treatments can be scientifically investigated at all? It aims to provide a better understanding of what conditions medical treatments must fulfill to be eligible for scientific investigation. In particular, the discussion is a rejoinder to the claims put forward by adherents of alternative medicine that their treatments are inaccessible to scientific scrutiny.
Keywords: clinical trials, alternative treatments, pseudoscience, scientific investigation
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- Title Pages
- Introduction Why the Demarcation Problem Matters
- 1 The Demarcation Problem
- 2 Science and Pseudoscience
- 3 Toward a Demarcation of Science from Pseudoscience
- 4 Defining Pseudoscience and Science
- 5 Loki's Wager and Laudan's Error
- 6 The Problem of Demarcation
- 7 Science, Pseudoscience, and Science Falsely So-Called
- 8 Paranormalism and Pseudoscience as Deviance
- 9 Belief Buddies versus Critical Communities
- 10 Science and the Messy, Uncontrollable World of Nature
- 11 Science and Pseudoscience
- 12 Evolution
- 13 Is a Science of the Supernatural Possible?
- 14 Navigating the Landscape between Science and Religious Pseudoscience
- 15 Argumentation and Pseudoscience
- 16 Why Alternative Medicine Can Be Scientifically Evaluated
- 17 Pseudoscience
- 18 The Holocaust Denier's Playbook and the Tobacco Smokescreen
- 19 Evolved to Be Irrational?
- 20 Werewolves in Scientists' Clothing
- 21 The Salem Region
- 22 Pseudoscience and Idiosyncratic Theories of Rational Belief
- 23 Agentive Thinking and Illusions of Understanding
- Contributors
- Index
