On the Fringe Book Summary - On the Fringe Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

On the Fringe summary

Name: On the Fringe
Rating: 4 (105 reviews)
Author: Michael D. Gordin

Michael D. Gordin

Where Science Meets Pseudoscience

4 (105 ratings)

22 mins

Table of Contents

On the Fringe
summarized in 7 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Learn how to distinguish science from pseudoscience.

We’ve all heard of pseudoscience. The term is typically used to describe a theory or belief that resembles science but is actually false, deceptive, or unproven. Many of us can agree that things such as eugenics, UFOlogy, or astrology fall under the category of pseudoscience. But what is it that actually makes these fields “pseudo?”

These blinks will guide you through a range of fringe doctrines to give you a better idea of what does and doesn’t count as science. Along the way, you’ll find out how certain doctrines have become demonized as pseudoscientific, how political or cultural contexts have shaped the scientific status quo, and what pseudoscience can teach us about science itself.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how the idea of a flat Earth is a postmodern invention;
how classical genetics was considered a pseudoscience for half a century in the Soviet Union; and
why reports authored by climate-change denialists don’t qualify as science.

Debates about what counts as pseudoscience are inevitable, but imperfect.

The question of what counts as science has long been debated. Writing about what we now call epilepsy, the fifth-century BCE Greek physician Hippocrates criticized faith-healers, witchdoctors, charlatans, and quacks. In practice, claiming scientific authority inherently excludes rival theories.

The debate over scientific criteria is known as the demarcation problem, a term coined by the twentieth-century Austrian philosopher Karl Popper. In his 1934 text The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Popper argued that science should adopt an overall criterion dictating that theories within a field should be falsifiable if that field is to be considered "science." Popper’s demarcation criterion was enshrined in US laws as recently as 2004. But from its onset, philosophers of science knew the theory had limitations.

The key message here is: Debates about what counts as pseudoscience are inevitable, but imperfect.

Popper’s demarcation criterion falls short in many instances. According to this rule of falsifiability, the Bermuda Triangle theory, Bigfoot, and the flat-Earth model would all qualify as science if adherents of these doctrines conceded that they’d change their minds if solid evidence against them were observed.

At the same time, falsifiability negates natural sciences such as geology or cosmology since practices in these fields aren’t executed in terms or claims that can be falsified. So why has Popper’s criterion continued to be so popular?

Though an imperfect task, the question of demarcation is essential when it comes to cases such as creation science, or the scientizing of the biblical Judeo-Christian creation story. Demarcation was at the center of the twentieth-century legal battles in the United States to determine whether evolutionary science or creation science should be taught in public schools.

In the 1980s, Popper’s demarcation criterion was held up in the US Supreme Court case Edwards v. Aguillard to determine that scientific creationism did not meet the criterion of science and could thus not be taught in schools. As a result, Popper’s theory was enshrined as a legal doctrine and incorporated into high-school biology texts until 2005, when Judge John E. Jones III altered the demarcation criterion to a less-rigid standard.

Even with changes, it’s inevitable that demarcation criteria will be imperfect. If we want to better our understanding of pseudosciences, we’re better off grouping them into loose categories than coming up with a single taxonomy, since pseudosciences are as diverse as science itself.

Many pseudosciences were once held up as science.

Rather than a consistent bank of knowledge, science is constantly evolving. Much of what is published as cutting-edge science today will likely be rendered wrong or irrelevant in the near future. For example, Pluto was considered a planet from its discovery in 1930. But on August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union changed its classification to dwarf planet, shocking all who had grown up believing Pluto to be an official planet.

The archives of science are filled with discarded doctrines. The author calls such doctrines vestigial sciences, or theories and beliefs once held up as science but later rejected by the mainstream. Today, expired doctrines of science such as alchemy and astrology are recognized by many as classic pseudosciences. But that hasn’t stopped some people from upholding their tenets.

Some pseudosciences were espoused to serve particular political ideologies.

All science has the potential to be political. During the Cold War, the United States’ policy of demonstrating the superiority of American democracy over Soviet communism led to the sponsorship of many scientific projects. And in today’s battle for abortion rights, for instance, reproductive health has come to involve highly politicized science.

But in some cases, scientific doctrines have been hyperpoliticized to serve a particular political ideology. The best-known case of this was Hitler’s Germany, where physiology, genetics, medicine, and anthropology were employed to serve Nazi racial policies. The Nazis used science to support the mass genocide of millions of Jewish people as well as thousands of Roma and Sinti, homosexuals, and people with mental and physical disabilities.

Adherents of counterestablishment sciences believe they are the defenders of truth.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a pseudoscientist who labels himself as such. More often, adherents of pseudosciences position themselves against the so-called “establishment” of contemporary science. In the crop of pseudosciences known as counterestablishment sciences, adherents believe that they are the proponents of real science.

Unlike vestigial sciences or hyperpolitical sciences, which fall out of the mainstream, counterestablishment sciences such as belief in Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster have been deemed to be pseudoscientific from their outset. This is also true when it comes to speculation about alien civilizations.

Skeptics have kept parapsychological research at the fringes of science.

Have you ever had the feeling that something terrible has happened to a loved one, and then found out that it was true?

While most people disregard telepathy or psychokinesis, even the American philosopher and psychologist William James, known as the father of American psychology, felt that there was something to be said for the extensive anecdotal evidence of people who sensed the death of a loved one. James was one of the first to experiment in the field that became known as parapsychology, or the study of unusual mental powers.

Denialism shares characteristics with pseudosciences.

Scientists might roll their eyes at contemporary astrologists or parapsychologists. But, for the most part, pseudosciences are harmless. Since time and resources in the sciences are limited and only go to the projects that are deemed most worthwhile, pseudoscience projects are naturally fringed out from the mainstream.

But in some cases, fringe sciences can cause considerable public harm. This is the case with groups such as HIV denialists, climate-change denialists, and the anti-vaccination movement. Unlike counterestablishment sciences, denialists don’t aim to establish their own propositions about the world. Instead, they seek to cast doubt on the consensus of the mainstream.

The adversarial environment of science makes pseudoscientific claims inevitable.

In the past century, science has progressed more rapidly than at any time in history. We now know more than ever about the natural world. Major discoveries in fields such as neurology and molecular biology are made on a monthly basis. In the face of all of this scientific knowledge, why are pseudosciences so persistent?

Answering this question requires us to investigate the nature of modern science itself. The term scientist was first coined in 1831, around the time that studying nature started to become an occupation. The new term implied someone who earned a living from research, published in recently founded scientific journals, and participated in a vibrant community of other science professionals.

Want to see all full key ideas from On the Fringe?

Key ideas in On the Fringe

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is On the Fringe about?

On the Fringe (2021) delves into what defines a pseudoscience along historical and philosophical lines. With the rise of climate-change deniers and anti-vaxxers, understanding the demarcation between science and pseudoscience has a newfound urgency. By exploring pseudosciences such as astrology, the flat-Earth model, and ESP, we can learn about the nature of science in both the past and the present.

Who should read On the Fringe?

Historians, scientists, and philosophers
Astrology enthusiasts
Climate-change activists

About the Author

Michael D. Gordin is the Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and the director of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts at Princeton University. His books include Scientific Babel, The Pseudoscience Wars, and Red Cloud at Dawn.

Categories with On the Fringe

Science

Books like On the Fringe

The Demon-Haunted World

Carl Sagan

Science as a Candle in the Dark

25 min

4.3

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Thomas S. Kuhn

A groundbreaking study in how science progresses

13 min

4.3

The Logic of Scientific Discovery

Karl Popper

On the Epistemology of Modern Science

The Return of Race Science

A Scientist’s Exploration of the Great Questions of Existence

One small step toward understanding the greatness of the universe

A behind-the-scenes look at the bogus science used to mislead us every day.

Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump

Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization

18 min

4.4

A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

Adam Rutherford

The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes

An Ancient Greek Tragedy on Civil Disobedience, Morality and Gender

The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

A Brief History of Humankind

The Curious Science of Everyday Lives

14 min

3.6

The 1-Page Marketing Plan

Allan Dib

Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd

On the Origins of Life, Meaning and the Universe Itself

18 min

4.1

The Grand Design

Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

How science unlocked the secrets of the universe

Getting Your Relationship Sh!t Together

The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking

A Flaw in Human Judgment

Tools for Smart Thinking

The Science of Synchronicity and How Your Choices Shape Your World

How We Know What’s Really True

Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

17 min

4.1

The Power of Discipline

Daniel Walter

How to Use Self Control and Mental Toughness to Achieve Your Goals

14 min

4.4

Toward a Psychology of Being

Abraham H. Maslow

Understanding Human Nature & the Fundamentals of Our Well-Being

21 min

4.5

The Screwtape Letters

C.S. Lewis

Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil

How to Boost Cognitive Health, Performance and Power

Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload

The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder

Methods for Manifesting a Life Beyond Your Wildest Dreams

How We Meet and Why It Matters

From Common Curiosity To Logical Reasoning

The stoic thinking of a Philosopher-King

Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of RAIN

36 min

4.6

How to Enjoy Your Life and Your Job

Dale Carnegie

Increase your understanding of human nature to live more fully

The Surprising Solution to Overthinking

A Journey of self-discovery

15 min

4.2

That One Should Disdain Hardships

Musonius Rufus

The Teachings of a Roman Stoic

21 min

4.6

The Everyday Hero Manifesto

Robin Sharma

Activate Your Positivity, Maximize Your Productivity, Serve The World

Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation

28 min

4.3

The Ethics of Ambiguity

Simone de Beauvoir

A foundational text of existentialist philosophy

19 min

4.5

Adult Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers

Stephanie M. Kriesberg

Quiet the Critical Voice in Your Head, Heal Self-Doubt, and Live the Life You Deserve

Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

The Human Journey from Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos

The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash

22 min

4.5

Bedtime Biography: Isaac Newton

James Gleick

Learn the truth behind the legend

A Young Prince’s Tragic Descend Into Madness and Revenge

24 min

4.8

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.