Why Astrology is a Pseudoscience
@article{Thagard1978WhyAI, title={Why Astrology is a Pseudoscience}, author={Paul Thagard}, journal={PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association}, year={1978}, volume={1978}, pages={223 - 234} }
Using astrology as a case study, this paper attempts to establish a criterion for demarcating science from pseudoscience. Numerous reasons for considering astrology to be a pseudoscience are evaluated and rejected; verifiability and falsifiability are briefly discussed. A theory is said to be pseudoscientific if and only if (1) it has been less progressive than alternative theories over a long period of time, and faces many unsolved problems, but (2) the community of practitioners makes little…
114 Citations
Identifying Pseudoscience: A Social Process Criterion
- Philosophy, Education
- 2018
Many philosophers have come to believe there is no single criterion by which one can distinguish between a science and a pseudoscience. But it need not follow that no distinction can be made: a…
A Philosopher looks at Astrology
- Physics
- 1991
AbstractProfessional astronomers and other scientists have often criticised astrology, although it is not their primary responsibility to tackle borderline subjects. It is rather the task of a…
Cutting the Gordian Knot of Demarcation
- Philosophy
- 2009
A definition of pseudoscience is proposed, according to which a statement is pseudoscientific if and only if it (1) pertains to an issue within the domains of science, (2) is not epistemically…
Astrology and truth: a context in contemporary epistemology
- Philosophy
- 2020
This thesis discusses and gives philosophical context to claims regarding the truth-status of astrology – specifically, horoscopic astrology. These truth-claims, and reasons for them, are sourced…
A Secondary Tool for Demarcation Problem: Logical Fallacies
- Philosophy
- 2017
According to Thagard, the behavior of practitioners of a field may also be used for demarcation between science and pseudoscience due to its social dimension in addition to the epistemic one. I…
Cicero's demarcation of science: A report of shared criteria.
- EducationStudies in history and philosophy of science
- 2020
Is Sociobiology a Pseudoscience?
- Psychology, BiologyPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association
- 1980
This paper defends sociobiology against criticism that it is not genuine science and argues that Thagard's more comprehensive and sophisticated criterion of pseudoscience fails to mark sociOBiology as a pseudos science.
A Psychological Astrologically Oriented Portrait
- Physics
- 2020
In order to draw a portrait of Otto E. Rössler, we will use his astrological chart. Astrology is a field of knowledge describing the effects that the celestial bodies (the planets and the moon) could…
The Multicriterial Approach to the Problem of Demarcation
- EducationJournal for General Philosophy of Science
- 2020
The problem of demarcating science from nonscience remains unsolved. This article executes an analytical process of elimination of different demarcation proposals put forward since the…
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 37 REFERENCES
The Case for Astrology
- Physics, Art
- 1970
This defence of astrology is written by a self-confessed believer of astrology. It discusses the history and principles of astrology by refuting the numerous objections against it, surveying the…
Astrology in colonial America: an extended query.
- PhysicsThe William and Mary quarterly
- 1956
An examination of a relatively unexplored and fairly narrowly defined field of human activity could be productive of interesting results if one were to investigate the role of astrology in colonial America.
The True Place of Astrology in the History of Science
- PhysicsIsis
- 1955
HE true place of astrology in the history of science is a vast subject with countless ramifications which it would take a long time to pursue and many pages to relate. My present purpose is to…
The two dogmas of empiricism
- Philosophy
- 1951
Modern empiricism has been conditioned in large part by two dogmas. One is a belief in some fundamental cleavage between truths which are analytic, or grounded in meanings independently of matters of…
Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes
- Philosophy
- 1976
For centuries knowledge meant proven knowledge — proven either by the power of the intellect or by the evidence of the senses. Wisdom and intellectual integrity demanded that one must desist from…
Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge: Logic of Discovery or Psychology of Research?
- Education
- 1970
My object in these pages is to juxtapose the view of scientific development outlined in my book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , with the better known views of our chairman, Sir Karl…
Objections to Astrology
- Physics
- 1975
This is a statement by 192 scientists, including 19 Nobel Prize winners, who call the "science" of astrology a deception based on "magic and superstition".
From a Logical Point of View
- Philosophy
- 1953
It is the wish of the author to keep general terms distinct from abstract singular terms, so that the over-all dis pensability of some assumption that has always rankled as ad hoc and unintuitive is discovered.
LOGIC OF DISCOVERY.
- Education
- 1968
There is a set of teachable procedures that can be described as the logic of science that can increase the efficiency of scientific practice and accelerate the teaching of scientific methods, according to the report.
MAGIC AND MEDICINE
- Education
- 1915
It is a pleasant academic custom, established of late years in this school, that the incoming students shall be welcomed by the president of the university, but also by a member of the faculty, through the medium of an address, usually devoted to some general aspect of medical practice or to some phase of the contributary sciences.