History of pseudoscience - Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Ancheta Wis (talk | contribs) at 18:29, 31 March 2005 (→See also). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 18:29, 31 March 2005 by Ancheta Wis (talk | contribs) (→See also)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Note: the current contents of this page are expected to change as consensus is reached.

v t e History of science
Background	Theories and sociology Historiography Pseudoscience History and philosophy of science
By era	Ancient world Classical Antiquity Medieval European Renaissance Scientific Revolution Age of Enlightenment Romanticism 19th century in science 20th century in science
By culture	African Argentine Brazilian Byzantine French Chinese Indian Medieval Islamic Japanese Korean Mexican Russian Spanish
Natural sciences	Astronomy Biology Chemistry Earth science Physics
Mathematics	Algebra Calculus Combinatorics Geometry Logic Probability Statistics Trigonometry
Social sciences	Anthropology Archaeology Economics History Political science Psychology Sociology
Technology	Agricultural science Computer science Materials science Engineering
Medicine	Human medicine Veterinary medicine Anatomy Neuroscience Neurology and neurosurgery Nutrition Pathology Pharmacy
Timelines Portal Category

This history of discredited and pseudoscienceis an account of the development of the protosciences; that is, statements about the natural world which were once thought to be authoritative. Protosciences differ from pseudoscience or discredited work, as they are partial, or incomplete work.

From Antiquity up to the time of the Scientific Revolution, inquiry into the workings of the universe was known as natural philosophy, but this included fields of study which today have been divorced from science. The ancient people of Western civilization who we might think of as scientists may have thought of themselves as natural philosophers. In other cases, systematic learning about the natural world was a direct outgrowth of religion, often as a project of a particular religious community. An account of the development of (natural) philosophy from ancient times until recent times can be found in Bertrand Russell's History of Philosophy.

One important feature of non-scientific natural philosophy is a reluctance to engage in experiment. For example, Aristotle is one of the most prolific natural philosophers of antiquity. He made countless observations of nature, especially the habits and attributes of plants and animals in the world around him, which he devote considerable attention to categorizing. He also made many observations about the large-scale workings of the universe, which led to his development of a comprehensive theory of physics in his missives of the same name. (See Physics (Aristotle).)

But Aristotle did not make predictions in the way that modern scientific theories are expected to.

An obsolete scientific theory is a scientific theory that was once commonly accepted but (for whatever reason) is no longer considered the most complete description of reality by mainstream science; or a falsifiable theory which has been shown to be false. This label does not cover theories that are yet to gain wide support in the scientific community (protoscience or fringe science). This also does not cover theories that were never widely accepted, or theories which were only supported in specific countries because of the imposition of dictatorial regimes (such as Lysenkoism).

In some cases, the theory has been completely discarded. In other cases, the theory is still useful because it provides a description that is "good enough" for a particular situation, and is more easily used than the complete theory (often because the complete theory is too mathematically complex to be usable). Karl Popper suggested that all scientific theories should be falsifiable otherwise they could not be tested by experiment. Anything which cannot be shown by experiment to be false would therefore be an axiom and have an absolute status, beyond any refutation.

Obsolete biology theories

Lamarckism - but revitalised in Neo-Lamarckism - see also epigenetic inheritance
Miasma theory of disease - obsoleted by germ theory of disease
Spontaneous generation (abiogenesis)
Recapitulation theory - or "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"

Obsolete chemistry theories

Caloric theory
Phlogiston theory - replaced by Lavoisier's work on oxidation

Obsolete physics theories

Aristotelian theory of gravity - discredited by Galileo
Aether - failed to be detected by the Michelson-Morley experiment, made obsolete by Einstein's work.
Plum pudding model of the atom - assuming the protons and electrons were mixed together in a single mass
Emitter theory - another now-obsolete theory of light propagation.

Obsolete astronomical and cosmological theories

Ptolemaic system/Geocentric universe - obsoleted by Copernicus and Galileo
Copernican system - obsoleted by Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton

Obsolete geographical theories

Flat earth theory
The Open Polar Sea, an ice-free sea once supposed to surround the North Pole

Obsolete medical theories

Theory of the four bodily humours
Eclecticism (medicine) - medical history - Some say it transformed into homeopathy and pseudoscience.

Obsolete branches of enquiry

Alchemy, which led to the development of chemistry
Astrology, which led to the development of astronomy
Phrenology, was once widely studied but now considered a pseudoscience
Numerology, as distinct from number theory, now considered a pseudoscience

Approximate theories

Here are theories that are no longer considered the most complete representation of reality, but are still useful in particular domains. For many theories a more complete model is known, but in practical use the coarser approximation provides good results with much less calculation.

Steady State - The Big Bang and dark matter threaten to destroy this comfortable world picture.
Universe - The possibility of Multiverses is one of the consequences of cosmic inflation.
Atoms are no longer thought to be indivisible, but are now seen to be composites.
Nuclei disintegrate at high energy.
Heliocentric universe theory - This is still used in the coordinate system of celestial mechanics.
Newtonian mechanics - obsoleted by Theory of Relativity and quantum mechanics. Still useful in engineering and physics at either middling (human) scales or where appreciable fractions of the speed of light need not be considered.
Bohr model of the atom - Allows for exact solution of the hydrogen atom, but larger atoms are not well described.
Newton's sine-square law for the force of a fluid on a body - no longer considered useful at low speeds, though it has found application in hypersonic flow

Theories whose significance was overstated

Land bridges - Though temporary connections between land masses sometimes allowed migrations (as when sea levels were lowered during ice ages), the actual splitting of continents by plate tectonics has been more important.