- 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
Loki's Wager and Laudan's Error
Loki's Wager and Laudan's Error
On Genuine and Territorial Demarcation
- Chapter:
- (p.79) 5 Loki's Wager and Laudan's Error
- Source:
- Philosophy of Pseudoscience
- Author(s):
Maarten Boudry
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
This chapter attempts to clarify the confusion between genuine demarcation (the science/pseudoscience boundaries) and the “territorial” demarcation between science and other epistemic fields (philosophy, mathematics). It argues that only the former is pressing and worth pursuing. The territorial problem has little epistemic import, suffers from additional categorization problems, and consequently neither calls nor allows for anything more than a pragmatic and rough-and-ready solution. The normative demarcation project, by contrast is eminently worthy of philosophical attention, not only because it carries real epistemic import and practical urgency, but also because it happens to be a tractable problem.
Keywords: science, pseudoscience, demarcation problem, genuine demarcation, territorial demarcation
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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
