HPS100H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Homeopathy, Cherry Picking, Pseudoscience

• School: UTSG
• Department: History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
• Course: HPS100H1
• Professor: Hakob Barseghyan

Document Summary

Note the distinction between scientific theories, unaccepted theories, and unscientific theories. > no. (cid:862)based o(cid:374) e(cid:454)perie(cid:374)(cid:272)e(cid:863) is extremely vague, for it allows for cherry picking only favourable evidence. It explains all the known facts of its domain. If we were to employ this criterion of demarcation, then many scientific theories would turn out to be unscientific. Diagnosis -> this requirement seems to be necessary but not sufficient. There is a difference between whether it has been tested or we can test it currently vs it is testable in principle. A scientific theory should be able to say that in such-and-such circumstances certain outcomes are possible, while other outcomes are impossible. Ma(cid:374)(cid:455) of superstri(cid:374)g theor(cid:455)"s predi(cid:272)tio(cid:374)s are(cid:374)"t testa(cid:271)le with (cid:272)urre(cid:374)t te(cid:272)h(cid:374)ologies, but we believe it is testable in principle. Diagnosis -> it is not necessary of a theory to be actually tested in order to be considered scientific.