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El Chupacabra in a hurry
Dr. Brian Regal
Professor for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Department of History, LHAC 212
email: bregal@kean.edu
Earth versus the Flying Saucers (1955)
Course Description:
A social and intellectual history of pseudoscience in America from 1800 to the present. Ideas and claims made that the mainstream dismisses as outside the bounds of scientific inquiry or which do not follow the scientific method.
Course Objectives:
This class will approach the material from a philosophy of science point of view. Students will gain a basic familiarity with the history of pseudoscience. They will learn the importance of being able to tell the difference between genuine science and its imitations, and how such beliefs can adversely affect modern society, government, and the national future. They will learn to apply various methodologies of historical research to the study of pseudoscience. Students will show their expertise through a series of examinations and written research projects on the topic.
• Syllabus Spring 2023 (NOTE: the syllabus is subject to change over the course of the semester).
Power Point presentation A - March 3, 2021
Power Point presentation B - March 3, 2021
Power Point Presentation: History of vaccination and anti-vaccination - March 30, 2021
NOTE: There will be a mandatory campus class walk (only when class is offered at the main Union Campus), Ghost Tour of Kean University.
Required textbook
There is no required textbook for this class. There will be a list of required articles to be read. See the syllabus and below.
Required reading
• Ute Frietschu - in part on the origins of the word pseudoscience (2015)
• Excerpt from Charles Fort's Book of the Damned
• History of Intelligent Design
• Robert Henson, The Thinking Person's Guide to Climate Change (2014) excerpt
• Vaccinations as a Cause of Autism: Myths and Controversies
• Some words history students should know
Supplemental Reading and Viewing: strongly suggested but not required
• Progress as a Demarcation Criterian
Pathological Science by Irving Langmuir
Gresham College Lecture: Are Conspiracy Theories a Threat to Democracy?
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/conspiracy-theories-a-threat-to-democracy
• Nostradamus, complete first edition (1555)
• The Ten Commandments of telling Science from Pseudoscience
Robert Bartholomew. Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking(2003).
Christine Garwood. Flat Earth: history of an infamous idea (2008).
Donna Kossy. Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief (2001).
David Rowe. God's Strange Work: William Miller and the end of the world (2008).
These books are in the Kean Library
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On-Line Resources:
Cambridge University Historiography of Science page:
http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/research/hs.html
Crank.Net for everything cranky
Forum for some of the latest debates and news from the world of Cryptozoology:
Cryptomundo
Fortean Times - journal of strange phenomena
Fulnama: Book of Omens medieval Ottoman books on divination, exhibit at the Smithsonian
http://purplemotes.net/2009/11/10/fortune-showing-tops-fortune-telling/
Louisiana religious school teaches Loch Ness monster as biology which disproves evolution
Monster Talk, podcast on everything monstery
http://www.skeptic.com/podcasts/monstertalk/
NCSE National Center for Science Education
QuackWatch
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/pseudo.html
Robert Schadewald Collection on Pseudo-Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Skeptic Magazine
Skeptical Inquirer
Strange Enthusiasms
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-3.4/macdougall.html
Witch Trial original manuscript sources, Harvard
https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:433629176$1i
Keely engine hoax
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• Kean University Department of History Main Page
• Kean University Main Page
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