PHIL 2301 Lecture Notes - Pseudoscience, Probabilism
Document Summary
A statement may be pseudoscientific even if it is eminently plausible" and everybody believes in it, and it may be scientifically valuable even if it unbelievable and body believes in it. The cognitive value of a theory has nothing to do with its psychological influence on people"s minds: beliefs, commitment, understanding are states of the human mind. But the objective, scientific value of a theory is independent of the human mind which creates it or understands it. In scientific reasoning, theories are confronted with facts; and one of the central conditions of scientific reasoning is that theories must be supported by facts. There is no scientific theology and therefore, no theological knowledge. Knowledge can only be about nature, but this new type of knowledge had to be judged by the standards they took over straight from theology: it had to be proven beyond doubt.
