The Baloney Detection Package

In folklore, mythology, and modern media such as literary fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear, invisible form or other manifestation, to the living. (Wikipedia). The existence of ghosts has always been an alerting and spooky, debatable motion that humans are curious of. There have been countless amounts of evidence gathered by paranormal investigators or ghost hunters. From videos of moving objects, recordings of voices from spirits through EVP, and even pictures of ghosts themselves. All of which the world sees as undeniable or fraudulent evidence based on one’s own self-belief. However, with numerous accounts of documentation from not only paranormal investigators, but actual people from across the world, it’s almost impossible to not believe that such phenomenon exist on earth, and those who do not are just terrified to accept it.

Distinguishing between science and non-science is known as the ‘demarcation problem’ (Resnick, 2000). Falsification was first proposed by Karl Popper to resolve this problem. He believed that someone can “only admit a system as empirical or scientific” if it is logically possible to both verify and falsify the system (Popper, 1959). Inductive reasoning tends to be used to provide evidence for a proposed theory but not absolute proof of it, hence the hypothesis outcome is probable but not irrefutable (Copi, Cohen, & Flage, 2007). Consider the statement “all swans are white” (Keuth, 2005). Just because all the swans you have observed are doesn’t make it true as you haven’t observed all swans; this is known as a dogmatic statement. Through falsification the outcome is a certainty not a probability.

Distinguishing the boundary between science and pseudoscience can be troublesome if not extremely fuzzy. What would seem like a black or white situation is actually riddled with gray. Science, as we know, is a way of obtaining knowledge by observing the natural world through curiosity and thought-provoking ideas. These ideas lead to investigations and experimentations in which one, through reason, draws conclusions. But, what about pseudoscience? What criteria does something have to meet in order to be classified as pseudoscience?

I will explain several differences between science, non-science and pseudo-science first. Science is simply the descriptions and explanations of the world. (Chalmers, 2013) Specifically speaking, science is a useful tool to demonstrate the solution of real world questions, particularly for aspects such as physics, biology, and biochemistry. (Laudan, 1981) It is worth noting that there are still several issues that excluded from the scientific claim, for example, science is not able to evaluate what positive or negative property of the facts as well as science would not provide a good explanation for questions related to math or logic. By the same token, science is still

Science has a textbook definition, a vague definition. “Practical and intellectual interest, through logical study of structure and behavior of the physical and natural world, through observations and experimentation.” Pseudoscience entertains an ambiguous definition as well. “claims that are presented as scientific, but deemed erroneous by the scientific method.”

I understand that most of people do not want to believe in these supernatural phenomena, but you can't hide the truth. If they did not exist, why would people make these shows about them finding ghosts? Why would they make these shows if they are not real? Also it just doesn't make sense why some people think they are fake, and if it was fake what would they be doing since then. I know people that have gone mentally insane because they saw, "something."

In his paper Popper talks about and attempts to find a point of demarcation or to create and fix the boundary between that of sciences and pseudo-sciences. Popper states that many of the theories people consider scientific (i.e. astrology) are in fact not and in order for a theory to be truly scientific it must follow a certain criteria. This criteria is the falsifiability, testability, and verifiability of the scientific status of a theory. Each of these claims are interlocking and rely on one another to work. Using these he is able to show what he thinks a true scientific claim should do. Along with that these claims are able to show how theories like astrology can fit into and answer just about any situation or question in life by simply remaining so vague that it cannot be proven wrong.

Pseudoscience is fiend science, “science” that usually does not have a structured theory of organized facts, testable predictions, or evidence to stimulate further investigation to be considered scientific (K.W. Brown, personal communication, September, 5, 2017). Pseudoscience usually represent themselves in case studies- methods in research that only apply to one individual or a small group, which is uncertain to work on another or smaller population. Most beliefs of Pseudoscience even goes against the basic criteria for what creates a scientific question. The Scientific Method makes certain that a theory is repeatable, testable and confirmable by other scientists to confirm the experiments causation for them to build from the research and conclude the analysis. The criteria for the scientific methods are broken down into basic principles: Consistent (internally & externally), Parsimonious (sparing in proposed entities, explanations), Useful (describes and explains observed phenomena), Empirically Testable and Falsifiable Based upon Controlled variables , Repeated Experiments are Correctable and Dynamic (changes are made with new data), Progressive (achieves all that previous theories have and more), and Tentative (admits that it might not be correct, does not assert certainty) (Brown, personal communication. September 5, 2017).  Pseudoscience is usually detectable if first the tested work fails to satisfy any of these principles. .

Did you know that according to Michael Lipka, 18% of Americans say that they have seen a ghost. Paranormal activity is a highly debatable topic about Paranormal events that happen. It is relevant because people will know if it’s a possibility that their witnessing/experiencing paranormal activity. A second reason why it’s relevant is if people are experiencing this they will know what’s happening and know how to get rid of it/them and stay safe. There are lots of controversy and theories about paranormal activity for example saying it’s your brain and it’s not real. Paranormal activity is real. Three claims on why paranormal activity is real are stories, movies/documentaries, and scientific evidence.

Pseudoscience is a belief based on science without supporting scientific evidence. For example, in the book, The Invisible Gorilla by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, the Mozart effect is the pseudoscientific belief that symphony music makes people smarter (198). The effect became popular in the media when a researcher wrote a scholarly article about it. However, when others attempted to replicate the study they received different results (Chabris and Simons 203). The basis for scientific research is consistency and the ability to replicate studies. When a study is unable to be replicated then it loses its scientific credibility. Pseudoscience

There are multiple different meanings to the word “science.” Science includes multiple experimentations and projects in order to come to a solution. The process of this is known as the scientific method. Wikipedia defines the scientific method as “a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting

false is not amenable to scientific investigation. Explanations that cannot be based on empirical evidence are not a part of science (National Academy of Sciences, 1998). Science is, however, a human endeavor and is subject to personal prejudices, misapprehensions, and bias. Over time, however, repeated reproduction and verification of observations and experimental results can overcome these weaknesses. That is one of the strengths of the scientific process. Scientific knowledge is based on some assumptions (after Nickels, 1998), such as • The world is REAL; it exists apart from our sensory perception of it. • Humans can accurately perceive and attempt to understand the physical universe. • Natural processes are sufficient to explain or account for natural phenomena or events. In other words, scientists must explain the natural in terms of the natural (and not the supernatural, which, lacking any independent evidence, is not falsifiable and therefore not science), although humans may not currently recognize what

Before this assignment I had no understanding of what defines science as science and how to pinpoint what is true science and what is fake science, otherwise known as pseudoscience. According to Jeffrey Lee who published Science and Pseudoscience, pseudoscience is considered a fake science. It is a collection of assertions that do not satisfy the requirements to practice true science. The difference being science relies solely on careful observations and experiments to either confirm or reject a hypothesis. It has to require reproducible results, personal stories or testimonies are prohibited. As well as arguments are based on logical and/ or mathematical reasoning. Lastly, there is progress; more and more things are learned and developed over time. Whereas, Pseudoscience is nothing but the complete opposite of what science represents. It is based off a hypothesis where the evidence is looked only to support the original hypothesis with little to no experimentation. Researches focus without skepticism and rely on personal stories and testimonies to back their belief. After a conclusion is made there is no further progress; nothing new is learned as time passes. These two very different methods can be the fine line between what is science and what is pseudoscience. According to Rodney Schmaltz and Scott O. Lilienfeld who published The 7 Ways to Identify Pseudoscience A person can identify what a pseudoscience is by acknowledging that others will use

An exampleof pseudoscience is ufology. This is the study of records, reports, physical evidence and other circumstances relating the UFO’s. An example of specific science is evolution. This is the idea that living organisms developed from earlier versions of themselves over a long period of time throughout the history of the earth (https://en.wikipedia.org).

The phenomenon of pseudoscience as a cultural-historic product has been the center of controversy since early 20th century. In this essay, demarcation aspects between neuroscience and pseudoscience are explored in their relationship with scientific community & public and finally, contemporary cultural heritage. Firstly, the demarcation problem will be addressed with aspects of the Falsifiability concept in both science and pseudo science conceptualization. The short essay closes with an account of