On the Fringe: Where Science Meets Pseudoscience
Michael D. Gordin
(Author)
Description
Everyone has heard of the term "pseudoscience", typically used to describe something that looks like science, but is somehow false, misleading, or unproven. Many would be able to agree on a list of things that fall under its umbrella-- astrology, phrenology, UFOlogy, creationism, and eugenics might come to mind. But defining what makes these fields "pseudo" is a far more complex issue. It has proved impossible to come up with a simple criterion that enables us to differentiate pseudoscience from genuine science. Given the virulence of contemporary disputes over the denial of climate change and anti-vaccination movements--both of which display allegations of "pseudoscience" on all sides-- there is a clear need to better understand issues of scientific demarcation. On the Fringe explores the philosophical and historical attempts to address this problem of demarcation. This book argues that by understanding doctrines that are often seen as antithetical to science, we can learn a great deal about how science operated in the past and does today. This exploration raises several questions: How does a doctrine become demonized as pseudoscientific? Who has the authority to make these pronouncements? How is the status of science shaped by political or cultural contexts? How does pseudoscience differ from scientific fraud? Michael D. Gordin both answers these questions and guides readers along a bewildering array of marginalized doctrines, looking at parapsychology (ESP), Lysenkoism, scientific racism, and alchemy, among others, to better understand the struggle to define what science is and is not, and how the controversies have shifted over the centuries. On the Fringe provides a historical tour through many of these fringe fields in order to provide tools to think deeply about scientific controversies both in the past and in our present.Product Details
Price
$18.95
$17.62
Publisher
Oxford University Press, USA
Publish Date
April 19, 2021
Pages
136
Dimensions
5.8 X 8.4 X 0.8 inches | 0.57 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9780197555767
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About the Author
Michael D. Gordin is Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and the director of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts at Princeton University. He specializes in the history of modern science in Russia, Europe, and North America, in particular on issues related to the history of fringe science, the early years of the nuclear arms race, Russian and Soviet science, language and science, and Albert Einstein. He is the author of The Pseudoscience Wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the Birth of the Modern Fringe, Scientific Babel: How Science Was Done Before and After Global English, and Red Cloud at Dawn: Truman, Stalin, and the End of the Atomic Monopoly.
Reviews
"Gordin's discussion offers critical tools for students confronting a cultural context in which claims of scientific expertise carry significant--even unprecedented--consequence." -- J. D. Martin, Durham University
"This will be helpful to anyone curious about how to separate the wheat of science from the chaff of pseudoscience." -- Publishers Weekly Review
"A fascinating exploration of the line between science and pseudoscience." -- PD Smith, The Guardian
"Illuminating" -- Ross McFarlane, Fortean Times
"Fascinating... a very effective and readable analysis." -- Brian Clegg, Popular Science blog
"Gordin (Einstein in Bohemia), a science historian, takes readers on a revelatory tour of pseudoscience and what lessons can be learned from it...Gordin does not offer an easy answer to his question of 'what is to be done?' and instead suggests that a better understanding of fringe science's history will allow readers to recognize the few that may 'cause significant public harm.' This will be helpful to anyone curious about how to separate the wheat of science from the chaff of pseudoscience."--Publishers Weekly
"Most discussions of pseudoscience focus on a handful of well-studied examples. Michael Gordin's deeply-informed tour of the fringes of science takes readers on a fascinating safari, in which we not only discover new aspects of the familiar forms but also learn about many exotic species. He proves an ideal guide." -- Philip Kitcher, John Dewey Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Columbia University
"Michael Gordin's book could hardly come at a more auspicious time. As disinformation and conspiracy theory floods the infosphere, about everything from vaccination and pandemics to climate change, it has never been more vital to understand how the boundaries between reliable and disreputable science become established and disputed. Without denying the importance of the problem, On the Fringe refuses easy answers in particular by making clear how much 'pseudoscience' arises from within the scientific and academic community. Clear, engaging and authoritative, this book is essential reading for everyone interested in how science interacts with the societies in which it is embedded." --Philip Ball, author of Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under Hitler
"[L]ively and thought-provoking." --LA Review of Books
