Chinese Science (From the Perspective of Philosophy and Sociology)

Author: Liu Huajie
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Science and Humanities Series · National 15th Five-Year Plan Key Book. This book is one of the first works in China to conduct an in-depth exploration of human special abilities, pseudoscience, and other phenomena from the perspectives of philosophy and sociology. In Chinese, "pseudoscience" carries a considerable degree of pejorative connotation, and in debates, all parties involved wish to label it on the opponent. Mainstream society considers science to be politically correct (PC), while pseudoscience and anti-science are considered politically incorrect (non-PC). However, the key issue lies in who controls the discourse and who is at the center versus the periphery. True science is sometimes labeled as pseudoscience, and fake science sometimes masquerades as genuine science. The author terms all claims labeled as scientific by neither the mainstream scientific community nor the government at the time as "alternative science." Alternative science may contain genuine science, but it also includes a large amount of pseudoscience and quackery. This book reviews the research on human special abilities that began in 1979, analyzes the demarcation problem from the perspectives of philosophy of science and sociology of scientific knowledge, and classifies Chinese alternative science. It also includes case studies of academic alternative science and folk mathematics enthusiasts.