Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science

''Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science'' (1957)—originally published in 1952 as ''In the Name of Science: An Entertaining Survey of the High Priests and Cultists of Science, Past and Present''—was Martin Gardner's second book. A survey of what it described as pseudosciences and cult beliefs, it became a founding document in the nascent scientific skepticism movement. Michael Shermer said of it: "Modern skepticism has developed into a science-based movement, beginning with Martin Gardner's 1952 classic".

The book debunks what it characterises as pseudoscience and the pseudo-scientists who propagate it.

Contents

Synopsis

''Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science'' starts with a brief survey of the spread of the ideas of "cranks" and "pseudo-scientists", attacking the credulity of the popular press and the irresponsibility of publishing houses in helping to propagate these ideas. Cranks often cite historical cases where ideas were rejected which are now accepted as right. Gardner acknowledges that such cases occurred, and describes some of them, but says that times have changed: "If anything, scientific journals err on the side of permitting ''questionable'' theses to be published". Gardner acknowledges that "among older scientists ... one may occasionally meet with irrational prejudice against a new point of view", but adds that "a certain degree of dogma ... is both necessary and desirable" because otherwise "science would be reduced to shambles by having to examine every new-fangled notion that came along."

Gardner says that cranks have ''two'' common characteristics. The first "and most important" is that they work in almost total isolation from the scientific community. Gardner defines the community as an efficient network of communication within scientific fields, together with a co-operative process of testing new theories. This process allows for apparently bizarre theories to be published — such as Einstein's theory of relativity, which initially met with considerable opposition; it was never dismissed as the work of a crackpot, and it soon met with almost universal acceptance. But the crank "stands entirely outside the closely integrated channels through which new ideas are introduced and evaluated. He does not send his findings to the recognized journals or, if he does, they are rejected for reasons which in the vast majority of cases are excellent."

The second characteristic of the crank (which also contributes to his or her isolation) is the tendency to paranoia. There are ''five'' ways in which this tendency is likely to be manifested.

#The pseudo-scientist considers himself a genius.
#He regards other researchers as stupid, dishonest or both.
#He believes there is a campaign against his ideas, a campaign comparable to the persecution of Galileo or Pasteur. He may attribute his "persecution" to a conspiracy by a scientific "masonry" who are unwilling to admit anyone to their inner sanctum without appropriate initiation.
#Instead of side-stepping the mainstream, the pseudo-scientist attacks it head-on: The most revered scientist is Einstein so Gardner writes that Einstein is the most likely establishment figure to be attacked.
#He has a tendency to use complex jargon, often making up words and phrases. Gardner compares this to the way that schizophrenics talk in what psychiatrists call "neologisms", "words which have meaning to the patient, but sound like Jabberwocky to everyone else."

These psychological traits are in varying degrees demonstrated throughout the remaining chapters of the book, in which Gardner examines particular "fads" he labels pseudo-scientific. His writing became the source book from which many later studies of pseudo-science were taken (e.g. ''Encyclopedia of Pseudo-science'').

Chapters

As per the subtitle of the book, "The curious theories of modern pseudoscientists and the strange, amusing and alarming cults that surround them" are discussed in the chapters as listed.

# ''In the Name of Science''
#* the introductory chapter
# ''Flat and Hollow''
#* the Flat Earth theory of Wilbur Glenn Voliva
#* the Hollow Earth theories of John Cleves Symmes, Jr. and Cyrus Reed Teed
# ''Monsters of Doom''
#* Immanuel Velikovsky’s ''Worlds in Collision''
#* William Whiston’s ''A New Theory of the Earth''
#* Ignatius Donnelly’s ''Ragnarok''; Hanns Hörbiger’s Welteislehre and Hörbiger’s disciple Hans Schindler Bellamy.
# ''The Forteans''
#* Charles Fort, Tiffany Thayer and the Fortean Society
#* The Hutchins- Adler ''Great Books Movement'': "most of them regard scientists, on the whole, as a stupid lot."
# ''Flying Saucers''
#* Kenneth Arnold, the Mantell UFO Incident
#* Raymond Palmer, Richard Shaver, Donald Keyhoe, Frank Scully, Gerald Heard and the Unidentified flying object movement.
# ''Zig-Zag-and-Swirl''
#* Alfred Lawson and his "Lawsonomy"
# ''Down with Einstein!''
#* Joseph Battell, Thomas H. Graydon, George Francis Gillette, Jeremiah J. Callahan and others.
# ''Sir Isaac Babson''
#* Roger Babson and the Gravity Research Foundation.
# ''Dowsing Rods and Doodlebugs''
#* Solco Walle Tromp and radiesthesia
#* Kenneth Roberts, Henry Goss and their dowsing.
# ''Under the Microscope''
#* Andrew Crosse, Henry Charlton Bastian, Charles Wentworth Littlefield and others who claimed to observe spontaneous generation of living forms.
# ''Geology versus Genesis''
#* Philip Henry Gosse and his '' Omphalos''
#* George McCready Price and ''The New Geology''
#* Mortimer Adler’s writings on evolution.
#* Hilaire Belloc’s debate with H. G. Wells

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