Concept
Demarcation problem
Overview
In philosophy of science and epistemology, the demarcation problem is the question of how to distinguish between science and non-science. It also examines the boundaries between science, pseudoscience and other products of human activity, like art and literature and beliefs. The debate continues after more than two millennia of dialogue among philosophers of science and scientists in various fields. The debate has consequences for what can be termed "scientific" in topics such as education and public policy.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
It is out of the question to set forth in this place in detail the contrast between transcendental epistemology and an experimental theory of knowledge. It may assist the understanding of the latter, however, if I point out, baldly and briefly, how, _out of the distinctively empirical situation_, there arise those assumptions which make knowledge a mystery, and hence a topic for a peculiar branch of philosophizing.
John Dewey, The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy, and other essays in contemporary thought
States what Demarcation problem is.
If we wish to divide this science from the universal point of view of a science in general, it ought to comprehend, first, a Doctrine of the Elements, and, secondly, a Doctrine of the Method of pure reason. Each of these main divisions will have its subdivisions, the separate reasons for which we cannot here particularize.
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason
Close in meaning to Demarcation problem; the term itself is not named.
The consideration that philosophy, if there is such a study, must consist of propositions which could not occur in the other sciences, is one which has very far-reaching consequences. All the questions which have what is called a human interest--such, for example, as the question of a future life--belong, at least in theory, to special sciences, and are capable, at least in theory, of being decided by empirical…
Bertrand Russell, Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy
States what Demarcation problem is.
Philosophers who discussed Demarcation problem
Related ideas
- Belief
- Harvard University Press
- Public policy
- Karl Popper
- Posterior Analytics
- Paradigm
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Science education
- Massimo Pigliucci
- Logical positivism
- Metaphysics
- Literature
- University of Chicago Press
- A. J. Ayer
- Vienna Circle
- Pseudoscience
- Thomas Kuhn
- Science
- Scientist
- Critical thinking
- Scientific Revolution
- Ignorance
- Aristotle
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Analytic philosophy.