Explanation
Semi-Science
is an attribute given by scientists to questionable
knowledge-findings of certain people or non-objective
truth-claims of certain groups. This attribute indicates that
the underlying facts are not (yet) properly proven according to
scientific rules, or that they are based on half-truths.
CPER's
principle:
CPER uses this term to denote the fact that science has the
following limitations:
-
There are many phenomena that science cannot explain properly
because of limited technical means.
-
Scientists have not investigated everything there is to
investigate yet.
-
Some scientists do not do value-free research in order to
find the objective truth.
-
Scientists avoid to investigate certain tricky phenomena, for
example: many scientists refuse to do objective research on
the aspect of homosexuality, because of moral or political
reasons.
-
There is little integration of knowledge from different
scientific areas related to cross-domain patterns or
phenomena.
-
Universities focus more on in-depth research, rather than on
expository education.
-
Universities are limited in their financial resources, so
they choose to invest in research on popular or
urgent themes.
-
To become famous or to get subsidies, current scientists
investigate mainly unexplored new areas. This way, much
relatively 'old' knowledge (but still useful for people
at home) is not perpetuated in a global popular knowledge base. Useful scientific
findings or solutions disappear into the background of
daily concerns of society. (Four family generations
later, a scientist re-invents the wheel again.)
This means that certain theorems can not be refuted, and should
not be ignored by the scientific community, as long as science
does not contain 'all answers to everything'.
CPER's vocabulary:
CPER applies the term 'semi-science' to
emphasize those statements that may become scientifically
proven in the future, by research done under supervision of a
university. Thus, these semi-scientific statements,
formulations, explanations or descriptions of phenomena are
-for now- 'hypotheses': they are set candidacy for proper
academic examination, and -who knows- may get included
into the accepted repertoire of proven scientific knowledge,
some day.
Linguistic derivation
The prefix Semi is derived from
the Latin word semi, meaning "half" and the
term Science from Latin scientia, meaning
"knowledge".