About The Term and Its Scope
Scientific skepticism is also called rational skepticism, and it is sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry.
The term scientific skepticism appears to have originated in the work of Carl Sagan, first in Contact (p. 306), and then in Billions and Billions (p. 135).
Scientific skepticism is different from philosophical skepticism, which questions our ability to claim any knowledge about the nature of the world and how we perceive it. Scientific skepticism primarily uses deductive arguments to evaluate claims which lack a suitable evidential basis. The New Skepticism described by Paul Kurtz is scientific skepticism.
Read more about this topic: Scientific Skepticism
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