What is Pseudoscience?

Pseudoscience (pseudoscience) is a theoretical hypothesis or hypothesis that has been falsified by practice (including scientific experiments), but is still promoted as science. ^[1-2]

Non-scientific things exist in large numbers and often have their own value, such as:

Pseudoscience refers to a claim that a non-scientific theory or method without a scientific basis is called science or more scientific than science, such as astrology, Wirikovsky collision theory, and Lisenko's proletarian genetics. Pseudoscience is different from temporary scientific errors. It is a social and historical phenomenon. The main point is that it pretends to be science at a specific time and place, and treats what has been proved to be non-scientific by the scientific community as science. Refusing to provide strict evidence.

The two separate attributes of the "pseudoscience" concept are very often needed by two different groups. The first attribute is the requirement of scientific status, and the second attribute is the judgment that this claim should not be obtained. The first attribute seems to be needed by the pseudo-science community, who borrowed the authority of science to symbolize the reputation of pseudo-science with rich authority, thereby achieving their intended purpose. The second attribute is undoubtedly needed by the scientific community. They want to expose the false appearance of pseudoscience and remove them from science.

Compared with science, pseudoscience has its obvious characteristics:

(1) Pseudoscience loves storytelling, while modern science uses mathematics or experiments;

(2) Pseudoscience likes appalling titles. In fact, there are very few discoveries in science. Science is usually a slow process of knowledge accumulation;

(3) Pseudoscience exaggerates the influence of a single factor. The scientific view is that "the occurrence of a result is often determined by multiple causes";

(4) Pseudoscience often lacks experimental descriptions. Science is centered on observation and mathematics. Scientific research forms a comprehensive theoretical system by collecting various observation and experimental data and then using mathematical tools;

(5) Pseudoscience likes to confuse causality. Science needs more aggregate evidence to support its conclusions. Strictly exclude interference variables, determine the relationship between independent and dependent variables, and do not use simple correlations to derive causality relationship;

(6) Pseudoscience adopts a general description. The science will first develop a specific "operational definition" for the concept under study instead of just describing a concept in general and then starting to study it. ^[3]

Francis Bacon, the founder of experimental science, is the founder of modern induction. He was hailed by Marx as "the true ancestor of modern experimental science", "the father of experimental philosophy", and "direct or perceptual creator of modern natural science." He has written a very influential book "Novum Organum Scientiarum", in which he proposed that there are four "false idols" (Idola, generally translated in Chinese as "Illusion" or "Illusion"), which are race, dwelling, market, and theater, respectively. Only by defeating these four "idols" can people realize true knowledge.

There are four types of socio-psychological foundations in which pseudoscience is widely accepted:

1) Originating from ignorance

People often lie and stop at the wise. It seems that all wise can recognize lies and see the nature of pseudoscience. However, the reality is that some wise men, even great wise men, will believe in pseudoscience. It can be seen that the statement that "pseudoscience stops at the wise" is not completely accurate. Instead, it should be said that "pseudoscience ends at the knower", or that the wise person must not believe in pseudoscience, and only the knower can identify the pseudoscience.

The so-called knowers are those who know the relevant scientific knowledge. As far as human beings are concerned, science has progressed, scientific knowledge has been enriched, and the understanding of nature and society has accordingly escaped the fetters of superstition or so-called "pseudoscience." In ancient times, humans did not know the function of the brain, but only found that when the human died, the heart stopped beating, so he believed that the heart dominated the human spirit. This insight is not scientific and stems from ignorance of the functions of human organs. Of course, today we still use the so-called "mood", "psychology" and "mind", which is by no means equal to what people really think is the role of the heart. With the true scientific knowledge of human brain and heart function, the previous "pseudoscience" lost market.

Personally, the same is true. For example, if you know the pathological principles of a certain disease, you will find a doctor to treat the disease for you, instead of asking God to worship the Buddha, and find the so-called "master" to spell spells for you; you know the scientific principle of lightning and thunder, You wo nt believe that being struck by lightning is a condemnation; you understand the physiological basis of human perception and perception in the scientific knowledge system of psychology, knowing that human vision is a function of the visual nervous system and is a feeling during evolution. As a result of organ specialization, the so-called "body-specific functions" such as ear recognition cannot be believed.

In short, if there are scientific explanations of social and natural phenomena, and people understand these explanations and become scientific knowledge stored in their own minds, they will not believe in pseudoscience. In other words, with scientific knowledge, it is difficult for pseudoscience to have a market.

2) From excessive worship of "authority"

If a society develops a culture of excessive worship of authority, it will inevitably become superstitious. At that time, telling the truth or spreading scientific knowledge may become an alternative and continue to develop. It must be social chaos and retrogression. In the process of forming social development "Dark Age." In the history of the development of human society, there are actually many such lessons.

Excessive worship of authority is another socio-psychological basis for a market for pseudoscience. Social psychologists have pointed out that society itself is an imitation. Imitation, or observational learning, is a way for members of society to gain a certain behavior. A law of members of society when imitating others is that people with low status tend to imitate people with high status. In other words, authority is easy to be the object of people's imitation, especially in the era of excessive worship of authority. This is the so-called "imitation authority effect". In this state, if the words and actions of authority are scientific, it is not harmful. The problem is that the so-called authority is not a figure who understands everything. If authoritative figures casually comment on things they do not understand, it means that they are risking the dissemination of pseudoscience, and may provide a model of anti-science imitation for members of society who overwhelm authority.

On the other hand, some real scammers in the society mostly use the trick of "imitating the effect of authority" to package themselves by authoritative figures to achieve the purpose of fooling people. Therefore, authoritative figures need to respect themselves and don't mistakenly believe that they understand everything and have the right to express opinions on any issue after becoming an authoritative figure. This is not only responsible to ourselves, but also to society.

3) Originating from their own "psychological defense" needs

"Psychological defense" is a term used in classical psychoanalytic theory in psychology, which refers to a function that humans have acquired in the process of evolution and individuals in the process of socialization. The implication is that when a person fails to pursue a goal, when a certain desire is not fulfilled, or when he suffers setbacks, he will automatically or actively adopt some methods to comfort himself, for his unsuccess and even failure Look for "proper" "reasonable" reasons to achieve your own psychological balance. The so-called "Sour Grape Philosophy" and "A Q Spirit" mean this.

Belief in superstition, or in pseudoscience, often stems from people's own need for "psychological defense." Things were not done well or failed, so I said that this was God s providence, an arrangement of destiny, and even the issue of birthdate characters and constellations, in order to relieve myself. "Since it is these factors that I cannot control that have caused failure, then it is not that I have not worked hard, nor can I blame my unreasonable goals." Although this kind of psychological defense has a certain comforting effect on people, if a person is too caught in this kind of The Ah Q-style self-defense is also a tragedy, which avoids rational thinking about the real cause of failure and is not beneficial to the development of his future life.

4) Insufficient "self-efficacy"

Self-efficacy is an assessment of your ability to achieve a certain goal. When self-efficacy is strong, people have higher self-confidence in what they will do, and feel more confident of success; on the other hand, when self-efficacy is weak, they appear to lack confidence and feel less confident of success.

However, the pursuit of success is a behavioral tendency that everyone has. Therefore, when self-efficacy is insufficient, that is, when they feel helpless, when they feel inadequate, such as being sick, for example, in the business field, for example, in the workplace enthusiastic for promotion, they will try to use some mysterious power Help yourself to increase self-confidence. This gives some pseudo-scientific stuff a psychological basis for acceptance and use.

Superstitious behavior is a kind of social behavior, which will increase under certain social conditions. To sum up, there are generally these situations: a society where science is not sufficiently advanced, pseudoscience, and superstition of its own market; when the binding force of social norms on members of society is reduced, superstitions and pseudoscience are prone to overflow; When one kind of superstition and one kind of pseudoscience are established, another kind of pseudoscience and another kind of superstition may be established. ^[6]

Academic research that distinguishes science from pseudoscience is internationally called "

Science is an important topic that is often talked and disputed within and outside the scientific community. Debates and disputes on this topic have never stopped since the advent of science. What is science? In the eyes of ordinary people, science is almost omnipotent. Science is truth. Science is always correct. Science means noble and sacred. However, in the eyes of people with a certain scientific literacy, the concepts of science and pseudoscience are by no means so simple. Science can explain many phenomena, but science cannot explain more.

Copernicus's "Operation of the Celestial Body", Meyer's Law of Energy Conversion and Conservation, Mendel's Law of Genetics, Wegener's Theory of Continental Drift, Kant's Nebula Hypothesis, Avogadro's Molecular Theory, Cantor Set theory, Lobachevsky's non-Euclidean geometric theory, Galois' group theory, etc., were just put forward when they were met with ruthless satire and violent attacks by the "academic authorities" at the time, leading to many The discoverer of scientific theories became mentally ill, and eventually fell into depression. However, the history of scientific development seems to deliberately make a big joke with "academic authorities". These theories have subsequently been proved to be scientific and correct. This cannot be said to be "scientific" and "scientific authority". A great irony.

So what is science? It is by no means superficial and superficial as ordinary people understand. The course of scientific development tells us that in the process of scientific development, truth and error are always intertwined. The "thermal mass theory" and "fuel element theory" were once widely accepted by the scientific community, but these theories could not stand the test of scientific practice and were eventually abandoned.

Judging from the course of scientific development, a new, correct, and contradictory scientific theory from the day it was born was bound to be bound by the old theory, and it must break through the old theory. Obstacles can only be accepted by the scientific community, can they replace the old theories, and become the new conventional scientific theories in the scientific community's ideology. No matter how great and authoritative a scientist is, his understanding of science has certain limitations. Academics like Da Vinci and Joule have also tried to develop once and for all perpetual motion machines that are ridiculous today. Newton, the greatest scientist in the history of science who claims to be standing on the shoulders of giants, insists that the nature of light is a particle, and opposes the wave theory of light. However, the wave fluctuation of light was finally confirmed by Thomas Young's double-slit interference experiment . These examples fully show that the scientific authority's understanding of science is not completely rational, and there will be certain cognitive deviations and misunderstandings. The development of science has its own objective laws, which are not transferred by the will of any scientific authority. Wrong scientific theories will eventually be abandoned, and correct scientific theories will not be lost forever. After all, they will be confirmed with the development of science, and sooner or later they will be accepted by the scientific community. ^[7]