On the one hand, "Pseudo-science" embraces more than just fakery that is being passed off as medicine. Other examples of subjects that I think would be fairly categorized as pseudo-science would include Ley lines, the teleological theory of cultural evolution, the theories of Immanuel Velekovsky, & as someone mentioned upthread ghosts. I guess you could say that it is any hypothesis that cannot be proven experimentally, but the least controversial examples are the ones that _have_ been disproven -- yet still have their true believers.
I fully agree.
On the other hand, "quackery" is more properly applied to medicine that either does not work, or is harmful.
I fully agree.
One can graduate from a mainstream, accredited medical school, receive a medical degree, & even be board-certified -- & yet still be a quack.
I fully agree.
Some doctors with education in scientific medicine are quacks. The discipline itself, however, isn't quackery. Homeopathy, on the other hand, is pseudo-medicine. Everyone who practices homeopathy is a quack while she's doing it, in the sense that she is providing medicine that doesn't work.
I keep coming back to homeopathy because it is probably the pseudo-medicine discipline with the greatest mainstream popularity. It even has some degree of official recognition in some countries. And yet it has been shown beyond any reasonable doubt not to work.
But if it really doesn't hurt anything if we call it "Alternative medicine", & creates a bit of WikiLove to do so, then shouldn't we accept the term & move on to other things?
I am arguing that the term is misleading for the articles that category currently holds (I won't repeat my argument here, see my earlier posts). I suggest we replace it with "Pseudo-medicine" and will do so myself if objections are not raised.
I see that we have 5 candidates for the Wikimedia Foundation who are all well qualified, but we can only elect two: isn't that problem worth at least as many posts as this one?
Certainly. I wish them the best of luck.
If this discussion is overly burdening the mailing list I suggest we continue it on the talk page of Category:Alternative medicine.
Regards, Haukur