Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science

Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science

1952 • 384 pages

Ratings2

Average rating4.5

15

Still interesting

This book, though a little dated in its examples and details, is still a classic and worth a read.
This is actually at least the third time that I've read it. The first time was sometime in the late 1950s when I was still in elementary school. Much of it was above my head then, so I think I didn't finish it then, getting bogged down someplace in the orgones.
I read it again around 1970 during my senior year at MIT. It was a good reminder to me at that time of what science was about and that however cool and trendy the psychic hoogie-moogie, astrology, and occultism of my friends early in the Aquarian Age seemed, ultimately it had to be self delusion or fraud.
The bits that are now the most dated are simply the refutations of the fallacies being debunked; 70 more years of scientific progress makes it much easier find disproofs, especially in the fields of genetics, biology, planetary science, and physics.

December 2, 2018Report this review