Demarcation problem

The problem of identifying criteria that distinguish science from non-science, including pseudoscience. Proposed solutions differ over whether reliable methods, testability, historical development, or social practices define science.

Falsifiability: The possibility that evidence could show a claim or theory to be false. Karl Popper proposed falsifiability as a criterion separating scientific theories from protected doctrines.
Testability: The capacity of a claim to face procedures that could produce evidence for or against it. Testability turns a proposed boundary into a question about possible empirical checks.
Logical positivism: A philosophical movement that sought to ground meaningful claims in logic and empirical verification. Its verification criterion helped frame early twentieth-century attempts to separate science from metaphysics.
Pseudoscience: Claims or practices presented as scientific despite lacking the evidential and methodological standards of science. Pseudoscience is the clearest target of proposed criteria for distinguishing science from non-science.
Science studies: Interdisciplinary research on how scientific knowledge, institutions, and practices are produced and used. It examines social and historical factors that formal demarcation criteria can overlook.
Verificationism: The view that a statement’s meaning or legitimacy depends on how it can be empirically verified. Its verification criterion contrasts with Popper’s emphasis on possible refutation.
Ad hoc hypothesis: An auxiliary claim introduced chiefly to protect a theory from an apparent counterexample. Ad hoc adjustments show how a theory can evade tests without gaining explanatory power.
Vienna Circle: A group of philosophers and scientists who developed logical empiricism in Vienna during the early twentieth century. The Circle’s programme made the status of metaphysical statements a central boundary question.
Scientific misconduct: Fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism that violates standards of responsible research. A boundary between science and misconduct is distinct from deciding whether a field is scientific.
Social epistemology: The study of how social relations and institutions affect the production and justification of knowledge. Scientific credibility depends partly on collective criticism, expertise, and institutional trust.

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