@philosophyminis: There is a tool to tell if something is nonsense or not. It's a tool to call out the quacks, the charlatans, and the snake oil peddlers of the world. It's a tool to tell pseudoscience from real. And it goes back to Karl Popper, whose ‘falsification’ theory is now a bedrock of the scientific method. According to falsification, a theory is only as strong as how far it can resist falsifying evidence. Empirical experiments cannot prove or verify a theory, only disprove it. The theory of gravity is such a strong theory because for however many plates we've dropped over the centuries, gravity will stubbornly persist in breaking them. So, if we call something a ‘working theory,’ that simply means that all experiments since it was presented haven't shown it to be wrong yet. But if a theory cannot be logically falsified, or if no possible evidence could disprove it, then Popper dismissed it as nonsense — a criticism he quite aggressively aimed at Hegel, Marx and Freud. For instance, if you find a man who seemingly has no desire for the mother figure, then the Freudian might say, ‘Well, it's repressed. It'll be there.’ Or if you find a Marxist and point out certain historic failures of Marxism, then they might say, ‘Well, it's never been tried properly, yet.’ In other words, if it's impossible to prove something or someone wrong, then it's not science. It's dogmatic conjecture. So, if you have a friend who tells you that they believe the world is run by extraterrestrial lizard people, ask them what it would take to disprove them. If they say nothing, then take Popper's advice and walk away.

Jonny Thomson

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Friday 05 December 2025 16:15:00 GMT