What Do You Say to a Pseudoscientist?

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No one in the history of the world has ever self identified as a pseudo scientist. So what do you say to somebody like that who genuinely think they're doing something? I'm just kind of curious about how it works, and i often want to know how they came to it. You see, flat earth is probably the most recent kind of efflorescence of this um. That's a fascinating phenomenon. It would be interesting to know which ones we're living in now that we just take for granted, and a century from now they'll go up. Look at those people in the early 20 first century, they thought x and now we know that's not true.

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. 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. Shermer and Gordin explore the philosophical and historical attempts to address this problem of demarcation.