Never really understood it and see it mentioned often
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Pseudoscience emulates the form, but not the substance of science.
Testable hypotheses, documented experimental methods, faithful observations, tenable conclusions drawn from these, and (most importantly) verification of results through repeated experimentation, give science its credibility as a means to secure knowledge.
To be scientific, research must be repeatable by anyone who follows the experiment as published. When reproduced, if experiments yield similar results, then the knowledge derived gains credibility. If an identical experiment yields contrary results, scientists will search for the reason why this occurred so they can refine their hypotheses. Good scientists faithfully seek data which contravenes their own conclusions because the goal of science is to produce sound knowledge.
Pseudoscience does none of this. At best, its adherents produce and promote as fact untestable speculations based on actual scientific work. At worst, psuedoscience is pure fantasy wrapped in technical jargon to persuade uneducated people to accept fiction as fact.
Pseudoscience adherents **do not** produce testable hypotheses, document their experiments, faithfully observe results, draw tenable conclusions from these, nor seek contradictory data. The goal of psuedoscience is not to produce sound kowledge, but to multiply its
adherents’ wealth, or to enhance their reputation among the scientifically illiterate.
To cleave a scientist from a pseudoscience adherent, listen to how they explain their work. The scientist will offer caveats, conditional statements which define preconditions necessary for their work to be valid, and invite skeptical questions which test their work’s soundness. When offering a prediction, scientists will speak about what results they expect, offer bounds of precision, and reply with “I don’t know” when asked to speculate beyond what data supports. Scientists invite refutation.
Pseudoscience aderent’s on the other hand will fall over themselves to try and convince you that their ideas are valid. They evade skepticism, and redirect refutations in ways that confound enquiry.
The key test is *falsifiability.* A scientist will define specific conditions which, if true, would render their hypothesis untenable. Psuedoscience is inherently unfalsifiable, in that adherents claim their ideas are true without condition.
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