PHILOS 1D03 Lecture Notes - Horoscope, Psychological Egoism, Pseudoscience
6 Dec 2013
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We have some general understanding that some theories just aren"t scientific: by this we intend to mean is that such theories lack a certain rigor or methodological adequacy, ex. Astrology: the theory that astronomical phenomena may have some connection to human life. Energy medicine: theory that a healer may channel healing energy into a patient usually through touch. What makes theory unscientific: is there some common feature that all pseudo scientific theories share which make them unscientific. What makes a theory scientific: is there some common feature that all scientific theories share which make them unscientific. Poppers answer: scientific theories have clear empirical conditions under which they may be falsified. Popper statement (on page 26 of text: by irrefutable" here it is meant that is there is nothing that one could observe that would contradict the hypothesis. Irrefutable" is not synonymous with incapable of being false".
