HOW TO TELL SCIENCE FROM BUNK? - USING THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Teaching the scientific method to graduate students implies going further than the level of understanding they come with from the high school. They will need to realize that applying the scientific method to their research implies working with scientific observations and sometimes with multiple hypotheses. In the last case, using the principle of parsimony (Occam’s razor) will help them in selecting the working hypothesis. Several ways of demarcation between science and bunk (pseudo-science, non-science) are discussed based on works by such philosophers of science such as Karl Popper (doctrine of falsifiability), Thomas Kuhn (paradigm shifts), and Imre Lakatos (research programmes). Finally, a triad of criteria (naturalism, theory, empiricism) is discussed aiming to guide a graduate student in avoiding common pitfalls of pseudo- or non-science.