ELFT HÍRADÓ

["Laszlo E. Szabo" <leszabo AT hps.elte.hu>]

Department of HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Eotvos University, Budapest
Pazmany P. setany 1/A Budapest
Phone/Fax: (36-1) 372 2924
Department's Home Page:http://hps.elte.hu

P h i l o s o p h y   o f   S c i e n c e   C o l l o q u i u m
Room 6.54 (6th floor) Monday 4:00 PM
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12 May 4:00 PM 6th floor 6.54   
 
G ü n t h e r   F l e c k 
Department of Human and Social Sciences
National Defence Academy, Vienna, Austria
 

THE ANTI-SCIENCE PHENOMENON: 
PSYCHOLOGICAL ROOTS OF RISKY DEVELOPMENTS CONCERNING SCIENCE 
 
In recent years we have been witnessing various movements attacking the 
position of science. These attacks originated in different domains,such as 
political and religious fundamentalism, esotericism, or relativism. They all 
share a more or less radical rejection of science emphasizing their own brand 
of world view as absolute truth. Some of these attacks on science (e.g., the 
New Age Movement) may be considered as a reaction against the extreme version 
of science - scientism. Viewing science as the only way of gaining genuine 
(true) knowledge, scientism has provoked and promoted anti-scientific 
movements. Unsatisfied with the position of scientism, even many students and 
young graduates in the Western culture have become susceptible to modern 
versions of superstition and pseudo-science. The obvious side-effects are the 
loss of the ability of critical thinking and the increase of superstitious 
thinking. This paper offers an attempt to analyse and to understand these 
movements from a psychological perspective. 

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The 60-minute lecture is followed by a 10-minute break. Then we held a
30-60-minute discussion.The participants may comment the talks and
initiate discussion on the Internet. The comments should be written in
the language of the presentation.

The organizer of the colloquium:
Laszlo E. Szabo (email: 
leszabo AT hps.elte.hu)
-- 
L a s z l o   E.   S z a b o
Theoretical Physics Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Eotvos University, Budapest
H-1518 Budapest, Pf. 32, Hungary
Phone/Fax: (36-1)372-2924
Mobil/SMS: (36) 20-366-1172
http://hps.elte.hu/~leszabo