Research Explorer

Project

The epistemic structures of pseudo-science and the logic of irrational beliefs: a sceptical and epistemological study
Code
3F003707
Duration
01 October 2007 → 30 September 2011
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund, Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Research disciplines
  • Humanities and the arts
    • Theory and methodology of philosophy
    • Philosophy
    • Ethics
    • Other philosophy, ethics and religious studies not elsewhere classified
  • Social sciences
    • General pedagogical and educational sciences
    • Communication sciences
Keywords
epistemology susceptibility philosophy of science
 
Project description

Many scientists and philosophers do not consider the so-called 'pseudo-sciences' a valuable object of research, because these theories are 'evidently false'. Nevertheless a thorough epistemological and sceptical study of pseudosciences can throw a light on various interesting subjects: 1) the cognitive mechanisms that support irrational beliefs, 2) the characteristic epistemic structures of pseudoscience, 3) the scientific demarcation criterium, 4) epistemic immunization strategies, 5) the dynamics of self-deception.