Quoting from my favourite encyclopaedia: Fringe science is a phrase used to describe scientific inquiry in an established field that departs significantly from mainstream or orthodox theories. Fringe science can be a field of inquiry which is not yet considered a real "science" (known as a protoscience), but which nevertheless bears some resemblance to the norms of the scientific method. Fringe science is, by definition, at the fringes of an already accepted discipline. Based upon the merits of the hypothesis and methods of the inquiry, specific instances of fringe science may or may not come to be included in the canon of actual science.
Fringe science can be distinguished from some similar sounding, but pejorative in nature, categories as follows:
* Pseudoscience - Pseudoscience is notoriously lax in rigorous application of the scientific method. Reproducibility is typically a problem. This is not so in fringe science. * Junk science - Junk science is used to describe agenda-driven research that ignores certain standard methodologies and practices in an attempt to secure a given result from an experiment. Fringe science, as in standard methodology, proceeds from theory to conclusion with no attempt to direct or coax the result. * Bad science - Bad science might more properly be labeled "poor science" in that it is typically characterized by substandard or "sloppy" methodology. Fringe science maintains the normal standards of methodology.
Steve
-----Original Message----- From: wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org [mailto:wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Fastfission Sent: Friday, 16th December 2005 4:54 AM To: English Wikipedia Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] SPOV threatens NPOV
On 12/15/05, David Gerard fun@thingy.apana.org.au wrote:
This resembles a circular argument.
Is there any word or phrase in *common usage* (i.e., we
can't coin a
Wikipedia-only neologism) that covers what is meant by "pseudoscience"?
"Not considered science by the mainstream scientific community though it presents itself in scientific terms." I don't know if any simple way to do it, though.
FF _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wik%3E ien-l