Types of pseudoscience. How to distinguish a scientific theory from a pseudoscientific one? The fight against pseudoscience in the USSR

Using the survey results, six values were calculated for each of the forty exercises. How easy is it to “get involved” in learning? How addictive is it? How much property damage has ever occurred to an individual? How great is the material damage to society as a whole? How big is the damage to personal well-being? How large is the number of victims from the practice of this teaching? All six quantities were considered equally significant. For each dimension, six outstanding exercises were selected. The exercises that distinguished themselves in the greatest number of parameters were considered the most dangerous.

Tenth place: neurolinguistic programming (NLP). E That a teaching that is based on the idea that the body and language of an individual form a picture of his worldview. This perception, and therefore behavior, can be changed using various techniques. Although the idea of NLP itself is not blatantly pseudoscientific and is closely related to psychology, there are no scientific studies showing the effectiveness of NLP techniques. NLP classics Richard Bandler and John Grinder honestly admit: “ Everything we are going to tell you here is a lie. Since you have no requirement for true and accurate concepts, in this seminar we will constantly lie to you" Critics of NLP believe that this is nothing more than a way to extort money from those who want to attend trainings and seminars. Despite this, citizens trust NLP. NLP is hard to give up and easy to get addicted to. But, not presenting any particular threat to life or wallet, NLP finds itself in a modest 10th place, as a very harmless hobby.

Ninth place: homeopathy. This a doctrine, one of the principles of which is that a person can be treated with a dilute solution of a substance, even if, as a result of dilution, this solution does not contain a single molecule of the substance being diluted. The mechanism of homeopathy is explained by such ephemeral effects as “water memory”, “water structure” and others that bypass the known laws of nature. Homeopathy should not be confused with herbal medicine (herbal treatment). Research shows that homeopathy treats no better than dummy pills. According to the survey, homeopathy is the leader in the number of people disappointed in it and poses a serious threat to the wallet. Although homeopathic medicines do not require expensive clinical trials or significant production costs, they can cost no less than high-quality medicines. On the other hand, homeopathy can help due to the “placebo effect” and is a relatively minor evil.

Eighth place: urine therapy.This is the teaching that almost any disease (including cancer) can be cured by ingesting urine. The use of urine to cleanse wounds in the field is not considered urine therapy. The greatest contribution to the development of urine therapy in Russia was made by Gennady Petrovich Malakhov, the host of the “Malakhov Plus” program on the air of the state-owned Channel One. Urine therapy does not inspire much confidence among citizens, but drinking urine can lead to unpleasant consequences for the body, for example, causing kidney problems. This makes urine therapy a dangerous pseudoscience.

Seventh place: palmistry. This is the doctrine that the pattern of folds of skin on the palms can predict a person's fate. There is no scientific evidence that fate is in any way dependent on these patterns. Palmistry is popular among the masses, but often disappoints those who rely on it. There are cases where people suffered from the false predictions of palmists.

Sixth place: healing. This is the teaching that a person can be healed by the laying on of hands, touch, conspiracy, ritual. The main danger of healing is that when turning to a healer, a person may forget or deliberately not resort to the help of official medicine. In this regard, there is a very large proportion of people who suffered through the fault of healers who promised obviously unbearable healing.

Fifth place: Feng Shui. This is the teaching that the arrangement of furniture in the home affects "energy flows", whatever that means. If the furniture is arranged according to Feng Shui, there will be more happiness and less illness in the house. Experiments were repeatedly conducted when several “gurus” of the Feng Shui teaching were asked to arrange furniture, while each subsequent “guru” completely rearranged everything that his predecessor had confidently arranged. Scientists say: Feng Shui is nothing more than design. All mysticism is just a reason to “cut extra money from the average person.” In this, Feng Shui masters succeed better than many of their colleagues in pseudoscience. Due to the material damage caused to both society as a whole and individual people, Feng Shui finds itself in 5th place on the list.

Fourth place: bioenergology. This the doctrine that a person has a “biofield”, by influencing which diseases can be treated. This term was used instead of the familiar “bioenergetics”, since the part of biological chemistry that studies energy processes in biological systems is called bioenergetics and is not pseudoscience. Bioenergy gets its 4th place due to the number of people affected by the practice of this teaching.

Third place: astrology. This is the doctrine that the stars or planets can be used to predict the fate of individual people, and sometimes the future of entire countries. A significant number of scientific works demonstrate: there is no connection between the position of the planets at the time of a person’s birth and his fate or character. In terms of its popularity, astrology ranks third, after magic and clairvoyance. Astrology is on the list of leaders both in terms of the number of people who are disappointed in it and the number of people practicing it. This “drug” is easily addictive and takes away a lot of money, which is spent on astrological seminars and consultations with astrologers.

Second place: magic. This the doctrine that with the help of a ritual one can bring misfortune, “damage” to a person, and negatively affect his life without coming into direct contact. Magic is also used to “bewitch” and send wealth. Magic is the absolute leader in the number of victims among people who practiced it, and ranks second in terms of monetary costs involved in the practice (after prayers). And, although magic is slightly addictive, belief in it is one of the most dangerous misconceptions.

First place: prayers. Within the concept of religion, there is the idea that physical ailments can be effectively treated through prayer. Paradoxically, it is on rituals associated with prayer that people spend the most money. This is due to the purchase of icons and candles, donations in churches, orders of prayer rituals... Prayers are in the lead in five of the six measured parameters, occupy second place in harm caused to the health of citizens and first in material damage to society. The benefits of prayers have been repeatedly tested and we can confidently say: there is no effect of prayer on people’s recovery. There are scientific studies showing some opposite effect: sick people who know that they are being prayed for get worse. The proposed mechanism is the “nocebo effect,” the opposite of the placebo effect of homeopathy. “If they are praying for me, then things are really bad,” the patient may think, losing hope. Thus, faith in prayers is the most dangerous delusion of modern society. To confirm this, there is a news event: the trial of a woman accused of murdering her eleven-year-old daughter is currently ongoing in the state of Wisconsin. The mother prayed instead of taking the sick girl to the doctor. A diabetic girl could have been saved by an insulin injection.

Some exercises were not included in the top ten, but showed interesting results. So clairvoyance is the most famous delusion. You can also mention the harm from pseudoscientific diets, such as those that teach people to eat according to their blood type, “cleansing” the liver, removing “toxins” - these are examples of misconceptions that are dangerous to health.

It should be noted that this classification is not accurate due to the limited sample of people on whom the study was conducted. The study itself was also not without flaws. However, I would like to hope that this topic will attract the attention of sociologists who will conduct a more thorough analysis of this problem, according to all the rules of science. This will make it possible to obtain a more reliable list of the most dangerous prejudices and misconceptions, as well as to attract public attention to such problems.

You can read more about the misconceptions of homeopaths here:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11761499
The nocebo effect of prayer: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16569567
You can read about the girl, the victim of prayers here: www.religare.ru/2_65358.html
Why do people believe all this nonsense:

While the Svidomo dog krev nurtures everyday fascism and jumps into the abyss, let’s return to our sheep and continue to throw rotten tripe of pseudoscientific nonsense onto the fan.

Let's cleanse karma, Dear Comrades!

In parallel with science, many teachings developed, ostensibly based on scientific methodology, but in fact only imitating a professional approach. They often offer simple solutions to problems, the serious study of which requires special professional training, are uncritical of their own theories and place too much faith in random coincidences. “Theories and Practices” compiled a list of the most famous pseudosciences - from phrenology to socionics - and remembered why they never managed to earn the trust of scientists.

Astrology

Predicting the future, guided by the movements of planets and stars, began in ancient times - the first evidence of attempts to find out the future is found in Sumerian-Babylonian myths, where celestial bodies are identified with gods. Greek astrology adopted the idea of a "divine" star essence and developed it into the forms we are familiar with. The most significant phenomenon of astrology today is horoscopes, which are compiled based on the individual influence of the planets for the 12 zodiac signs.

The methodology of astronomy is incompatible with modern scientific methodology, which has been repeatedly proven by scientists. Textbook examples of evidence are the debunking of Michel Gauquelin’s statistical hypothesis, called the “Mars effect,” and Bertram Forer’s experiment called the “Barnum Effect.” Gauquelin discovered a relationship between the birth of champion athletes and the phases of Mars, and for a long time insisted on the veracity of the results of his research, until he was caught falsifying the original statistical data. In turn, Forer proved the inconsistency of astrology with the help of a social experiment: having given students a test to determine the specific traits of their personality, he promised to provide an individual psychological portrait of each on its basis, but instead gave everyone a uniform description drawn up on the principle of a horoscope. Most students appreciated their “personalized” description and were satisfied with the professor's efforts.

However, despite numerous arguments in favor of recognizing astrology as a pseudoscience, horoscopes continue to be updated daily, some people continue to believe in the existence of the mythical planet Nibiru, which is capable of destroying the Earth, and the “Flat Earth Society” (according to the postulates of which Antarctica is just an ice wall encircling the world , and photographs of the Earth from space are fakes) has not yet collapsed, so astrology, while remaining a pseudoscience in certain circles, is generally thriving.

Phrenology

Pseudoscience, which became widespread at the beginning of the 19th century thanks to the research of the Austrian physician and anatomist F.J. Gall, who established a connection between the mental portrait of a person and the physical characteristics of the skull. Gall believed that any internal changes in the brain, especially changes in the volume of its hemispheres, provoke visible changes in the corresponding parts of the skull, and therefore one can judge the development or underdevelopment of a person and the presence of certain skills, abilities and personal characteristics.

Phrenology is familiar to moviegoers thanks to Quentin Tarantino’s film “Django Unchained,” where the slave owner Candy is fond of comparing the skulls of representatives of different races. This detail is historically determined - many American slave owners really became interested in phrenology in the 19th century and carried out cruel experiments on their slaves. The debunking of phrenology occurred along with the development of neurophysiology, which scientifically proved that the characteristics of the psyche do not depend on the topography of the brain, and even more so on the structure of the skull.

Homeopathy

A pseudo-medical direction in science that calls for taking special homeopathic medicines to prevent the development of diseases in the future. The founder of the direction is the German doctor Christian Hahnemann, who at the end of the 18th century developed an entire system of treatment with homeopathy (he also put forward the so-called “coffee theory of diseases”, according to which almost all diseases known to people are provoked exclusively by drinking coffee). Homeopathy is based on the principle “like cures like”, which is contrary to modern rational pharmacotherapeutic medicine; therefore, a medicine in homeopathy, in fact, is a catalyst for the development of a milder form of the disease for which the patient is going to be treated. All supposedly effective drugs are diluted in at least twelvefold concentration and, according to the scientific community, are no different from a placebo - a substance that does not contain medicinal properties. At the very least, most studies have not confirmed the effectiveness of homeopathic medicines.

Parapsychology

Parapsychology studies supernatural phenomena such as telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, teleportation and suggestion. This parascience is trying to convince the public that it is possible to move through time and space, and people endowed with special talents can predict the future, as well as control others with the power of thought. Calling for belief in astral duality, near-death experiences and reincarnation, parapsychologists conduct many experiments and experiments to prove that superhuman capabilities exist.

Telepathy, for example, was for some time explained by scientists using the “wave theory,” which reported the presence of special waves that, when captured by a person, could evoke in him a certain image similar to the image that arose in another person, but this theory did not was proven and found untenable. In the 1930s, a dice player was tested for superpowers by claiming to be able to use his mind to arrange the dice to show the correct total, but more than 650,000 dice rolls disproved his claim, establishing that the matches were purely random. Uri Geller, known for his ability to change the physical form of material objects at a distance, also failed to establish the triumph of anomalous abilities. He was even caught in the fact that he had previously treated his fingers with a special chemical composition, which allowed him to bend spoons only by touching them.

Scientist Ian Stevenson tried to study reincarnation for 40 years, studying 3,000 cases of supposed rebirth, comparing moles and birth defects of children and deceased people who had moles and scars in the same places. He failed to scientifically prove the fact of reincarnation. In the same way, not a single extraordinary phenomenon has yet been scientifically proven, and the constant emergence of information about new phenomena of parapsychology occurs only because a certain percentage of the planet's population has not yet lost faith in paranormal phenomena.

Ufology

Parascience, mainly studying UFOs, as well as recorded facts and future possibilities of communication between the inhabitants of the Earth and aliens and extraterrestrials, poltergeists and ghosts. The main subject of study of ufology is paleocontacts - contacts of creatures of extraterrestrial origin with earthlings and even their visits to our planet in the past. As proof of the validity of the theory of paleocontact, ufologists cite signs left by aliens on the earth - crop circles, unidentified floating objects and other very dubious artifacts. As a science, ufology began only in the 1940s, when the first evidence of “flying saucers” moving at supersonic speeds began to arrive. Such statements were initially taken seriously even by the heads of many states, who immediately created special secret projects to study the phenomenon. In the USA - the "Sign" project and the "Blue Book" project, in Britain - "Room 801", in France - GEPAN. However, over the years of research, it was not possible to confirm the main fear of ufologists that the Earth is under the surveillance of other creatures.

Numerology

Parascientific teaching about the mystical meaning of numbers and their influence on people's lives. Numerology received its impetus many centuries ago thanks to the Hebrew alphabet, in which letters were also used to write numbers, which is why they had their own numerical values. The founder of the main principles of numerology is considered to be the philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, who discovered the relationship between numbers and notes. After his discovery, he established the GDZ in 6th grade Mathematics, any subject and any phenomenon of reality can be expressed by numbers.

In numerology, any multi-digit number can be reduced to a single-digit number with its own characteristics by adding its components.

Letters also have an individual numerical equivalent, so numerology willingly reveals the “secrets of names” to everyone. The number makes it possible to unravel the weaknesses and strengths of a person under its influence, predict the future and describe the patterns of his life. The multiple number of numerological tables and the presence of various tactics for adding numbers does not allow us to come to a unified interpretation of numbers, which is always emphasized by opponents of the spread of numerology. Another compelling argument for those who doubt this parascience is related to women's surnames. If just yesterday a girl was, for example, “Anna Alekseevna Belousova” and her destiny number was considered to be “13,” and today she married a Spaniard and became, say, “Anna Alekseevna Mares,” then her destiny number is no longer “13.” ", and "1".

Cryptozoology and cryptobotany

Related disciplines involved in the search for animals and plants known to us only from legends, myths and eyewitness accounts, as well as the search for animals and plants that, according to scientists, are considered extinct. Cryptozoologists don't limit themselves to finding dinosaurs, dragons and unicorns; they also study creatures from more modern legends - Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster. Scientists themselves involved in cryptozoology or cryptobotany recognize it as pseudoscience, but still consider it a useful discipline and continue to search for lake demons (Ogopogo) and vampire goats (Chupacabra).

Palmistry

A non-scientific method of establishing the relationship between the lines on a person’s palm and his destiny. Palmistry examines the skin texture of the palms, especially the papillary lines - it is believed that each of the lines is responsible for some direction in a person’s life, and by studying its pattern, one can predict the success of a person’s fate in a particular area. The patterns on the palms, the shape of the palm and fingers allow you to understand the inner world: the thumb and the line extending from it is the line of life, the index finger corresponds to the line of the heart, the middle finger - the line of fate, the ring finger - the line of happiness. Additional lines, such as the marriage line and the line of descent, can be used to determine the success of the marriage and the number of children.

However, in numerous manuals on palmistry, the same signs on the palms are explained in different ways, and for predictions it is proposed to use either the left or the right palm, the patterns on which are most often contradictory. Palmistry is not recognized as a science in most countries, but in some it is still considered a serious activity: for example, the National Indian University still teaches palmistry today, and in Canada there is a “National Academy of Palmistry”. In contrast to palmistry, a science is actively developing that seriously studies the skin of the palms and makes it possible to determine the predisposition to hereditary diseases - dermatoglyphics.

Socionics

Pseudoscience, built on the basis of Jung’s teachings about typology and archetypes, offering the opportunity, based on a certain test methodology, to identify for each person his personal so-called type of “information metabolism” - the process of exchanging individual signals with the outside world - and classify it as one of 16 described in detail sociotypes. Socionics as a separate doctrine arose in the 1970s thanks to the efforts of the Lithuanian economist and psychologist Aushura Augustinaviciute. The key parameters for determining the type of information metabolism are “sensing”, “thinking”, “intuition”, “feeling” (in the physical sense of the word), “introversion” and “extroversion”: in different combinations they form different socionic personality types. Based on the results of the socionic test (it exists in several versions from different authors), each person is conditionally identified with one of 16 characters named after famous people and literary heroes (for example, Don Quixote, Dumas, Stirlitz or Napoleon) and gets the opportunity to find out about their compatibility with other sociotypes.

Socionics is known mainly in the post-Soviet space and is not considered an official science - it has neither a general scientific theory nor established uniform research methods. It has also been criticized for being too speculative and lacking empirical evidence. In addition, the concept was greatly discredited by crowds of enthusiasts who immediately began to determine the socionic types of strangers, already dead people and even entire countries - while the founders of socionics emphasized that they did not claim to create a universal psychological classification for all occasions.

Physiognomy

An alternative direction in science that tries to prove the connection between a person’s external appearance and his character and spiritual qualities. Physiognomy tries to “read” the face, structural features of the body, the meaning of gestures, postures and the general bodily impression that a person makes, as well as determine the level of a person’s intelligence solely by his appearance and demeanor. In eastern countries, physiognomy was not separated from medicine and began to develop even before our era, calling for studying a person based on the principle of the “five peaks”: forehead, nose, chin, cheekbones. In European culture, science also found support, for example, GDZ Physics 7th grade, Charles Darwin supported the development of physiognomy, believing that by studying the work of an individual’s muscles, one can understand what his main personal inclinations are. Based on the shape of the face, hairline, location and shape of natural facial openings and other reliefs on the face, based on the basics of physiognomy, you can create a basic portrait of a person’s inner world.

The modern scientific community does not believe in the amazing possibilities of physiognomy, especially after studies have been conducted on twins, who, despite their external identity, often have diametrically opposed characters.

Folk history

Predominantly the Russian direction of pseudohistory, which is engaged in reshaping historical realities, most often with the aim of publishing books of mass appeal. Alternative history tends toward fiction and falsifications while apparently preserving the scientific form. The author of a work of folk history pretends that he is revealing a new story to the reader, but in reality he just juggles the facts and, breaking logical connections, creates a “new story” that runs counter to the events that have been established for certain.

Folk history began to actively develop in Russia in the years after the collapse of the USSR, when a single communist ideology ceased to dominate history. The predecessor of the movement is considered to be Lev Gumilyov, who, while offering readers his theory of passionary ethnogenesis, also put forward a very specific “author’s” version of history. .

If everyone remembers, interest in science is also spurred by fashion. Thus, at the turn of the 50s and 60s, theoretical physicists were very popular. Partly, this is due to the publicity that the media gave to physicists - in the interwar period, some of them became heroes of gossip columns, although they were not seen in anything more scandalous than simple absent-mindedness.

But since they couldn’t come up with anything better than thermonuclear weapons, interest gradually returned to normal, and today physicists are no more popular than, say, geographers or animal scientists. But not only real sciences are popular, but also their charlatan imitations...

Astrology

Phrenology

Homeopathy

Parapsychology

Telepathy, for example, was for some time explained by scientists using the “wave theory,” which reported the presence of special waves that, when captured by a person, could evoke in him a certain image similar to the image that arose in another person, but this theory did not was proven and found untenable. In the 1930s, a dice player was tested for superpowers by claiming that he could use his mind to arrange the dice to show the desired total, but more than 650,000 dice rolls disproved his claim, establishing that the matches were purely random. Uri Geller, known for his ability to change the physical form of material objects at a distance, also failed to establish the triumph of anomalous abilities. He was even caught in the fact that he had previously treated his fingers with a special chemical composition, which allowed him to bend spoons only by touching them.

Ufology

Parascience, mainly studying UFOs, as well as recorded facts and future possibilities of communication between the inhabitants of the Earth and aliens and extraterrestrials, poltergeists and ghosts. The main subject of study of ufology is paleocontacts - contacts of creatures of extraterrestrial origin with earthlings and even their visits to our planet in the past. As proof of the validity of the theory of paleocontact, ufologists cite signs left by aliens on the earth - crop circles, unidentified floating objects and other very dubious artifacts. As a science, ufology began only in the 1940s, when the first evidence of “flying saucers” moving at supersonic speeds began to arrive. Such statements were initially taken seriously even by the heads of many states, who immediately created special secret projects to study the phenomenon. In the USA - the "Sign" project and the "Blue Book" project, in Britain - "Room 801", in France - GEPAN . However, over the years of research, it was not possible to confirm the main fear of ufologists that the Earth is under the surveillance of other creatures.

Numerology

Parascientific teaching about the mystical meaning of numbers and their influence on people's lives. Numerology received its impetus many centuries ago thanks to the Hebrew alphabet, in which letters were also used to write numbers, which is why they had their own numerical values. The founder of the main principles of numerology is considered to be the philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, who discovered the relationship between numbers and notes. After his discovery, he established that any object and any phenomenon of reality can be expressed by numbers.

In numerology, any multi-digit number can be reduced to a single-digit number with its own characteristics by adding its components.

Cryptozoology and cryptobotany

Palmistry

Socionics

Physiognomy

An alternative direction in science that tries to prove the connection between a person’s external appearance and his character and spiritual qualities. Physiognomy tries to “read” the face, structural features of the body, the meaning of gestures, postures and the general bodily impression that a person makes, as well as determine the level of a person’s intelligence solely by his appearance and demeanor. In eastern countries, physiognomy was not separated from medicine and began to develop even before our era, calling for studying a person based on the principle of the “five peaks”: forehead, nose, chin, cheekbones. In European culture, science also found support; for example, Charles Darwin supported the development of physiognomy, believing that by studying the work of an individual’s muscles, one can understand what his basic personal inclinations are. Based on the shape of the face, hairline, location and shape of natural facial openings and other reliefs on the face, based on the basics of physiognomy, you can create a basic portrait of a person’s inner world.

Folk history

When asked: “What sciences do you know?”, most people will easily list: “Mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, history, psychology...” And almost no one will mention astrology, palmistry or ufology. Although they have all the signs of “real” science, these areas are classified as “pseudo-scientific”, or even “pseudo-scientific”. But why?

The fact is that any scientific statement requires irrefutable evidence. If they cannot be found, then no hypothesis can be considered proven. And all “parasciences” exist only at the level of hypotheses, assumptions and observations. Moreover, real science uses only statements that meet Popper's criterion of falsification, that is, those that can in principle be refuted by experiments, observations, or inferences. But the hypotheses of pseudoscience are fundamentally irrefutable.

There is one more difference - the experiments and conclusions of scientists must be independently reproducible. Roughly speaking, if one scientist conducted an experiment on the effect of, for example, gravity on a falling object (as Newton did in his time) and described the method of this experiment, then another scientist, using this method, should obtain similar results (if this is not the case) happened, then either the methodology was incorrect, or the experiment was carried out incorrectly. And in “pseudoscience”, the results of research by one “adept” are completely irreproducible by another - for example, two different astrologers interpret the same astrological chart differently.

And finally, if in science a certain result is always obtained as a result of some actions and processes, then here there is no clear reproducibility of the results. Let's look at the most common "pseudosciences" and their chances of becoming true sciences.

Astrology

People began to predict the future by the location of stars and planets since ancient times. Thus, in Sumerian-Babylonian myths, celestial bodies were identified with gods. Today, horoscopes are published in almost every publication. But, although most often the features of a person correspond to his “zodiac type” proposed by astrologers, there are also many individual discrepancies. Therefore, one can only focus on astrological data “in general terms.”

Numerology

This is the doctrine of the influence of numbers on the destinies of people and various processes. The founder of numerology is considered to be the famous ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, who believed that any object or phenomenon can be expressed in numbers.

Pythagoras probably would not have wasted words. But there is such a difference in numerological methods that it is difficult to understand which one is the most correct. For example, in one case it is proposed to add up the serial numbers of the letters of the last name, first name and patronymic, and then reduce them to a simple number, and in the other - only the numbers of the letters of the first and last name. It is clear that the result is different numbers, and whether it is possible to judge a person’s personality from them is a big question.

Physiognomy

She tries to prove the connection between a person's appearance and his personality traits. This includes features of facial features, body structure, as well as the interpretation of poses and gestures in different situations. Meanwhile, people with similar appearance can sometimes have completely different characters. This has been shown in studies of twin pairs. So there is no point in drawing clear conclusions.

Palmistry

This is the art of “reading” fate through the lines and bumps on the human palm. The problem is that different manuals and manuals give different interpretations of palm patterns. In addition, the patterns on the right and left palms often do not match. Many people still recognize palmistry, but only a few are able to correctly interpret palm symbols. To become a real palmist, you need to study long and seriously.

Homeopathy

This is a “paramedical” direction that uses special herbal preparations to treat diseases. In this case, the drug and dosage are selected individually depending on the psychological characteristics of the patient. Although there is extensive evidence of the effectiveness of these treatments, most medical studies have not confirmed that these treatments have a healing effect.

Parapsychology

This includes the study of phenomena such as clairvoyance, telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation and hypnosis. Of course, all these phenomena exist, as there are many examples of this. But at the same time, no one has yet managed to explain their nature and derive any patterns.

Ufology

Ufologists study unidentified flying objects, as well as contacts with alleged representatives of extraterrestrial intelligence. But so far all “science” comes down to stating isolated facts allegedly related to UFOs and aliens. It is impossible to prove that there is some kind of connection between them, nor to explain their nature.

Cryptozoology and cryptobotany

These related parasciences are engaged in the search for animals and plants, either extinct or known to us from myths and legends. Cryptozoologists have come to the attention of, for example, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and the Chupacabra. They track the appearance of such creatures, but are not able to identify them.

How should we feel about “parascience”? Reject or still take into account? Perhaps they should be considered as theories that have a right to exist, but not as an undeniable truth. After all, extra knowledge is never harmful.

On the other hand, any knowledge must have a practical side - otherwise no one will simply give money for research. And this is where “parascience” is let down by the aforementioned fundamental irreproducibility of the results. To explain with an example, imagine that you doubt the diagnosis that the doctor gave you, because the treatment he prescribed did not lead to an improvement, but to a deterioration in your health. You can go to another doctor, who, following the same technique, will examine you and confirm that his colleague really made a mistake. On this basis, you can sue the first doctor and receive compensation for the harm to your health that his mistake caused you.

Now let’s imagine the same situation in which it is not a doctor who acts, but, for example, an astrologer. Suppose he made a forecast for you that was completely unconfirmed and, moreover, by following it, you lost a lot of money. In this case, will you be able to prove in court that the mistake of this “specialist” caused you damage? No, because there is no single method for checking the activities of astrologers, and not a single colleague of this unlucky predictor will be able to convincingly prove that he was mistaken.

Here you need to understand that pseudoscience implies a deliberate distortion of logic, misleading. Well, or this distortion may be a consequence of mental illness. It is quite natural for normal scientists to fantasize, invent hypotheses and make mistakes. But the system of the scientific world itself involves discussion, provision of evidence, publication in peer-reviewed journals, and conferences. The author of a scientific theory will be only too happy to discuss it, receive questions and make sure that he himself has really gotten to the bottom of the truth. And the pseudoscientist will reduce all attacks to conspiracy theories, a conspiracy of the scientific community controlled by reptilians, and, as has already been written here, avoid specialists and turn to the general public, gathering around him adherents who do not notice contradictions and inconsistencies.

A clear sign of pseudoscientific theories is that they are aimed at the average person. Their main task is not the development of science itself, but working for the public and creating an image (usually with the goal of making money). It is difficult for an ignorant person to distinguish truth from untruth, so even complete nonsense can be wrapped in “scientific terms” and presented as a scientific theory. Real scientists don’t care about such things; they do their work not for the sake of approval from the janitor Vasya Pupkin.

The main thing is not to confuse pseudoscience and the popularization of real science. Explaining a complex thing simply and clearly is popularization. Exposing stupidity to look abstruse and scientific is pseudoscience.

Sometimes it’s very simple, but there’s no luck at all. In any case, you need to look at how the theory is proven. At the moment, the main and only criterion of scientificity is the method of proof: all statements in science are proven by contradiction, and any theory lives exactly until the moment when it is refuted. More specifically, an alternative hypothesis/explanation (sometimes several) is formulated and evidence is provided why it is not valid.

Some sciences are more fortunate in this: they can conduct experiments and therefore there is no difference between rejecting an alternative hypothesis and proving the main one. For example, this is how things are in physics: if you threw an apple 1000 times, it fell 1000 times, which means there is a law of attraction; they threw an apple 1000 times at a speed of 8 km/s - it went into orbit 1000 times, which means 8 km/s is the first space one.

Things get more complicated when it becomes difficult or completely impossible to carry out experiments. For example, in medicine it is very difficult to conduct experiments, because, firstly, there are risks, and secondly, it is extremely difficult to mitigate the effects of other factors. In physics, you can throw a thousand identical balls or disperse a thousand “identical” particles in a collider, but in life you won’t find 1000 absolutely identical people, let alone them doing the same thing during an experiment (eating the same food, getting up in the same position). at the same time, did sports for the same time, etc.), and you don’t have to think about it. Sometimes experiments are not possible in medicine: you cannot force 1000 people to smoke half a pack a day if the task is to study the consequences of smoking. When experiments become difficult and/or impossible, it is necessary to constantly check whether there are other explanations for the observed phenomenon and test these alternatives. For example, could it be that smokers die earlier, not because of smoking, but because they eat fatty foods more often, drink alcohol, and generally lead a less healthy lifestyle than non-smokers? If the negative effect of smoking persists even if we compare people leading the same healthy lifestyle, then this alternative is rejected. Having gone through and rejected all alternative hypotheses, we can talk about the consistency of the original statement.

It gets really bad when it comes to social sciences such as economics and sociology. In such sciences, there can be a great many alternative hypotheses, and those who come up with new alternative hypotheses that no one has tested before are given respect and honor. The development of a methodology that allows us to immediately cut off many alternative explanations (including those that we are not aware of) occupies a very significant layer in the social sciences.

Non-sciences (in global terminology) or humanities (in Russian terminology) are both lucky and unlucky at the same time. Let's take a look at history. History does not ask the question common to all sciences: “what will happen if?” (for example, “Won’t I die faster if I smoke 10 more cigarettes a day?”), and therefore historians are lucky: historians don’t like to answer these questions and deliberately refuse (“history does not tolerate the subjunctive mood,” remember? ). History finds out whether certain events took place in the past (variations are possible: for example, what motives did people have for doing something). And here historians are out of luck, because this or that set of historical artifacts and documents could appear as a result of various events. Moreover, the number of different interpretations grows when there is less physical evidence. Therefore, in historical works (here, of course, historians would explain better) you can pay attention to the following couple of things. Are all historical evidence (artifacts, documents, eyewitness accounts) mentioned? If not, then there is a high risk that the author is trying to pull facts into his statement, deliberately ignoring some of the information. Are alternative explanations listed? And more specific is better. A phrase like “official science” is a very bad sign (excuse me, which alternative statement are you trying to reject?). Are alternative hypotheses truly rejected? For example, the phrase “if the statements of official science are true, then we cannot possibly observe phenomenon A” is not a refutation; a refutation is “if the statements of official science are true, then we should review phenomenon B, because BLABLABLAH, but in fact, we are reviewing phenomenon A.”

To begin with, if such a question is raised, let’s assume that you were unable to “catch” errors, logical contradictions, and inconsistencies (including with other theories).

The lion's share of friarism and all sorts of charlatans can usually be cut off by the criterion of falsifiability (or Popper's criterion), but explaining how to use it within the framework of this answer would be stressful and long, so if you are really interested, I suggest you google it. (Even though I myself understand how it’s not a good idea to go Google to answer a question)

Also, if we take into account the purposes for which any pseudoscientific dregs are spread, we can note a number of indirect signs with which it reveals itself and which are not at all characteristic of science. This allows you to make some decisions based on “how” the theory is presented, and not on its essence. (if you have enough knowledge to understand the essence, the following is not necessary)

1) As a rule, all sorts of freaks turn not to the scientific community, but to the “respectable public.” Whereas scientists always strive to convince only other scientists that they are right, and they do not need “support from fans.” In general, if there are doubts and you see that the text is addressed not to scientists, but to the people, this is a reason to doubt it even more.

2) Almost always, any anti-scientific graphomania and theories are presented using various polemical techniques, the so-called “demagogue’s rules,” involving oratory skills. Real scientific research is dry, written in clear scientific language, which is characterized not only by the use of terms, but by a unique way of presenting information.

For example, very often, after presenting various facts, among which there may be real facts, you are asked to form your own opinion. Such veiled flattery supposedly hints that you already have sufficient knowledge to reach the conclusion desired by the author.

3) it is often noticeable that the established terms are used too freely. Which, not infrequently, a “pseudo-scientist” cannot give a definition or the context of use of the term contradicts the definition.

4) Without a conspiracy theory, all sorts of global behind-the-scenes, it will not be possible to explain why all other scientists are mistaken. Also, the use of the phrases “conservative science”, “official science” and the like does not inspire confidence. In science there is simply no one to develop an “official” opinion, much less impose it. Scientists live in different states at war with each other, work for changing governments or commercial organizations, profess (in cases where they profess) all existing religions, including Jediism, and adhere to different political views. The scientific community is generally devoid of solidarity, but on the contrary, is imbued with the spirit of competition, both in personal and national competitions. This is a completely unsuitable environment for a “world conspiracy.” Only with a smile can one read about certain “forbidden” discoveries that pose a threat to established ideas and are therefore hidden from the public. (True, there was still one exception to this rule - the doctor who tried to convince his colleagues that they should wash their hands before childbirth, especially after they were picking around all sorts of insides in the morgue, turned out to be damn right, although he ended up in a mental hospital for it. But he is the only one, and the methods of science have seriously changed since then. And, again, he wanted to convince other doctors, and not random people, society)

4) Substitution of evidence for a theory with criticism of another (so-called “official”) theory. If there is such a opposition, this is a bad sign. (although if you look at it, it tells you that you don’t need to read further).

5) selectivity to facts. Only those that cannot (or supposedly cannot) be explained by science/another theory and which can be explained by this theory in 2 counts are selected. In addition, in science, the inability of a theory to explain a fact may also indicate incompleteness or limitations of the conditions for applying the theory, in addition to possible error. In pseudoscience, everything is usually clear.

6) scientific theory explains the phenomena under study in already known concepts in such a way that these explanations have at least some “predictive power”, so that from this explanation we learn at least something new, and do not explain 1 unknown by 2 unknowns.

7) references to authority. True, this does not yet apply to some humanities, unfortunately. In real scientific works, as a rule, there is no reference to authority. It doesn’t matter what Einstein or academician Vasya said. What matters is that they proved it. At the same time, if he has proven it, it doesn’t matter whether he’s an academician at all. Of course, indicating the author of the quotation and links to sources are mandatory in scientific work, but these are measures against plagiarism, and a link to authority is “since Academician Vasya said it, it means it’s true”

Hmm, that’s a lot of “letters”, not concise, but still not enough.