Everyone has heard of the term "pseudoscience", typically used to describe something that looks like science, but is somehow false, misleading, or unproven. Many would be able to agree on a list of things that fall under its umbrella-- astrology, phrenology, UFOlogy, creationism, and eugenics might come to mind. But defining what makes these fields "pseudo" is a far more complex issue. It has proved impossible to come up with a simple criterion that enables us to differentiate pseudoscience from genuine science. Given the virulence of contemporary disputes over the denial of climate change and anti-vaccination movements--both of which display allegations of "pseudoscience" on all sides-- there is a clear need to better understand issues of scientific demarcation.
On the Fringe explores the philosophical and historical attempts to address this problem of demarcation. This book argues that by understanding doctrines that are often seen as antithetical to science, we can learn a great deal about how science operated in the past and does today. This exploration raises several questions: How does a doctrine become demonized as pseudoscientific? Who has the authority to make these pronouncements? How is the status of science shaped by political or cultural contexts? How does pseudoscience differ from scientific fraud?
Michael D. Gordin both answers these questions and guides readers along a bewildering array of marginalized doctrines, looking at parapsychology (ESP), Lysenkoism, scientific racism, and alchemy, among others, to better understand the struggle to define what science is and is not, and how the controversies have shifted over the centuries. On the Fringe provides a historical tour through many of these fringe fields in order to provide tools to think deeply about scientific controversies both in the past and in our present.
Industry Reviews
"Gordin's book should be mandatory reading for all those interested in the nature of science and pseudoscience. On the Fringe provides an excellent exposition of a wide diversity of pseudoscientifc doctrines, something which certainly can help to devise more useful demarcation criteria." -- Juan Gefaell, Metascience
"Michael Gordin's book adds at least two important aspects to the literature. First, as a historian, he puts some of the pseudosciences in a historical perspective that is seldom presented. Secondly, he contributes to the systematic treatment of pseudosciences by introducing four groups of such teachings." -- SVEN OVE HANSSON, Society for US Intellectual History
"Gordin's discussion offers critical tools for students confronting a cultural context in which claims of scientific expertise carry significantDLeven unprecedentedDLconsequence." -- J. D. Martin, Durham University
"This will be helpful to anyone curious about how to separate the wheat of science from the chaff of pseudoscience." -- Publishers Weekly Review
"A fascinating exploration of the line between science and pseudoscience." -- PD Smith, The Guardian
"Illuminating" -- Ross McFarlane, Fortean Times
"Fascinating... a very effective and readable analysis." -- Brian Clegg, Popular Science blog
"Gordin (Einstein in Bohemia), a science historian, takes readers on a revelatory tour of pseudoscience and what lessons can be learned from it...Gordin does not offer an easy answer to his question of 'what is to be done?' and instead suggests that a better understanding of fringe science's history will allow readers to recognize the few that may 'cause significant public harm.' This will be helpful to anyone curious about how to separate the wheat of science
from the chaff of pseudoscience."--Publishers Weekly
"Most discussions of pseudoscience focus on a handful of well-studied examples. Michael Gordin's deeply-informed tour of the fringes of science takes readers on a fascinating safari, in which we not only discover new aspects of the familiar forms but also learn about many exotic species. He proves an ideal guide." DL Philip Kitcher, John Dewey Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Columbia University
"Michael Gordin's book could hardly come at a more auspicious time. As disinformation and conspiracy theory floods the infosphere, about everything from vaccination and pandemics to climate change, it has never been more vital to understand how the boundaries between reliable and disreputable science become established and disputed. Without denying the importance of the problem, On the Fringe refuses easy answers in particular by making clear how much
'pseudoscience' arises from within the scientific and academic community. Clear, engaging and authoritative, this book is essential reading for everyone interested in how science interacts with the societies in
which it is embedded." --Philip Ball, author of Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under Hitler
"[L]ively and thought-provoking." --LA Review of Books
"Gordin's book can best be approached as a first sketch of a very useful and promising way of studying pseudoscience rather than as a definitive account of it." -- Juan Gefaell, Metascience
