Question

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What is a pseudoscience?

Answer 1

A practice that claims it can interpret brain activity.- No
A practice that claims to be, but is not, science.
A science that is new and unproven.- No
A science that is controversial or arguable.

Answer 2

I don't know is it is B or D.

Answer 3

psuedoscience is Almost science, but i would be inclined to say B because you can't be almost science, you are either science or you don't follow the boundaries that science operates under.

Answer 4

The prefix "pseudo" comes ultimately from a Greek word meaning "false," and it typically means something that appears like something else, but isn't. So a pseudoscience would be something that looks like a science, but isn't.

There are a lot of ways a pseudoscience could take on the appearance of a science, but not be one. For example, it could involve lots of mathematics and formulas, or have people dressing in lab coats, or make extensive use of deductive logic, or a specialized vocabulary, or even refer to many great principles of science, such as Newton's Laws, or quantum mechanics.

But in all such cases it must be missing some crucial aspects of science, something that takes the heart out of it. Usually it's empiricism: the ability and willingness to submit hypotheses to experimental test, and abide by the results.

For example, astrology is a pseudoscience. There's lots of numbers and calculations, and perhaps someone has a theory for how the location of the Sun at your birth changes your personality. But what it is missing is the willingness of astrologers to accept the experimental fact that their ability to actually predict the future is no better than those who do not use astrology to do so.

Folk medicine and nutritional supplements are also pseudosciences, and for the same reason. They have wonderful theories, some of which are very clever and logical, and could very easily be true -- are very convincing, from a strictly logical viewpoint. But they cannot accept the fact that, as it turns out, these theories do not allow one to improve health. Using them you do no better than those who do not use them.

To my mind, the chief distinction between pseudoscience and real science is that the real scientists is willing to accept that almost all of his theories and hypotheses about how the world works will turn out to be wrong, when checked against experimental fact. The world is a tricky place. It's very easy to be beautifully logical and convincing -- but dead wrong. The true scientist accepts and works with this regrettable and discouraging fact. The pseudoscientist lets hope and optimism get in the way of doing so.