History of pseudoscience

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Pseudoscience. (Discuss)

This article does not cite any references or sources. (November 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.
Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (May 2008)

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

Background
History of science

Theories/sociology
Historiography
Pseudoscience
By era
In early cultures
in Classical Antiquity
In the Middle Ages
In the Renaissance
Scientific Revolution
By topic
Natural sciences
Astronomy
Biology
Chemistry
Ecology
Geography
Geology
Paleontology
Physics
Social sciences
Economics
Linguistics
Political science
Psychology
Sociology
Technology
Agricultural science
Computer science
Materials science
Medicine
Navigational pages
Timelines
Portal
Categories

A pseudoscience is any body of knowledge purported to be scientific or supported by science but which fails to comply with the scientific method. For more information about the complexities of drawing the boundaries of pseudoscience, see the articles pseudoscience. The history of protosciences, are covered in the main history of science.

Since pseudoscience is something that purports to be science, pseudoscience only emerged after the scientific revolution established science. Non-scientific studies that had some characteristics of science before the revolution that lead to the establishment of a scientific field are regarded as protoscience.

Since the advent of pseudoscience, numerous groups have presented non-scientific topics as science in order to gain the appearance of legitimacy through association with science. Pseudoscientific subjects widely vary, but include anything that purports to study the supernatural through science^{[citation needed]}, and anything that breaks the laws of physics such as perpetual motion machines.

[edit] After the fall of the pagan Roman Empire

The neutrality of this section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.(May 2008)
Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.

This section does not cite any references or sources. (May 2008)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

From the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it was the Christian initiative that helped maintain a civilization recovery plan. From the Roman Empire, Christians inherited the: 1) good - architecture, aqueducts, road management, logistics, distribution, communication, literature, engineering, mathematics that was passed on from Egypt and improved upon by the Greeks), and administrative processes. 2) questionable (morals, laws, court procedures, precedents, judgments, labor management – e.g., slavery - practices that were changed under new policies c) faulty sciences for example: geocentric view of the universe, which although faulty, still maintained centuries-old reliable body of calculations that have aided in navigations, calendar with its predictive movements of heavenly bodies and seasons; alchemy, which later developed into chemistry; astrology, horoscopes attributing erroneous interpretations to planetary alignments within the zodiac, also led to astronomy; application of medicine which developed into a more stable body of knowledge, processes and prevention.

The ancient pantheistic evolutionary and the creation views of origins and conditions became handy in filling the historical gaps. It is, however, under the creation model - its view of an ordered and lawful universe - that allowed for the emergence of and the pursuit of verifiable knowledge (science).