"Pseudoscience: A Very Short Introduction explores the philosophical and historical attempts to address this problem of demarcation between science and pseudoscience. Many people would be able to agree on a list of things that fall under the umbrella of pseudoscience - astrology, phrenology, UFOlogy, creationism, and eugenics might come to mind - but a precise definition has proven impossible. This book explores a bewildering array of marginalized doctrines, focusing on some of the central debates about what science is and is not, and how such controversies have shifted over the centuries, and offers a historical and philosophical approach to fringe science and scientific controversies in the past and the present"-- Provided by publisher.

Preface -- The demarcation problem -- Vestigial sciences -- Hyperpoliticized sciences -- Fighting "establishment" science -- Mind over matter -- Controversy is inevitable -- The Russian questions.