Voodoo Science - Categories

Categories

Park uses the term voodoo science (see the quote section below, Page 10) as covering four categories which evolve from self-delusion to fraud:

  • pathological science, wherein genuine scientists deceive themselves
  • junk science, speculative theorizing which bamboozles rather than enlightens
  • pseudoscience proper, work falsely claiming to have a scientific basis, which may be dependent on supernatural explanations
  • fraudulent science, exploiting bad science for the purposes of fraud

Park criticizes junk science as the creature of "scientists, many of whom have impressive credentials, who craft arguments deliberately intended to deceive or confuse."

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