Nonsense on Stilts
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents

Contents
Introduction Science versus Pseudoscience and the “Demarcation Problem”
Chapter 1 Frustrating Conversations
Chapter 2 Hard Science, Soft Science
Chapter 3 Almost Science
Chapter 4 Pseudoscience
Chapter 5 Blame the Media?
Chapter 6 Debates on Science: The Rise of Think Tanks and the Decline of Public Intellectuals
Chapter 7 From Superstition to Natural Philosophy
Chapter 8 From Natural Philosophy to Modern Science
Chapter 9 The Science Wars I: Do We Trust Science Too Much?
Chapter 10 The Science Wars II: Do We Trust Science Too Little?
Chapter 11 The Problem and the (Possible) Cure: Scientism and Virtue Epistemology
Chapter 12 Who’s Your Expert?
Conclusion So, What Is Science after All?
Chapter 1 Frustrating Conversations
Chapter 2 Hard Science, Soft Science
Chapter 3 Almost Science
Chapter 4 Pseudoscience
Chapter 5 Blame the Media?
Chapter 6 Debates on Science: The Rise of Think Tanks and the Decline of Public Intellectuals
Chapter 7 From Superstition to Natural Philosophy
Chapter 8 From Natural Philosophy to Modern Science
Chapter 9 The Science Wars I: Do We Trust Science Too Much?
Chapter 10 The Science Wars II: Do We Trust Science Too Little?
Chapter 11 The Problem and the (Possible) Cure: Scientism and Virtue Epistemology
Chapter 12 Who’s Your Expert?
Conclusion So, What Is Science after All?
Notes
Index
Index
Review Quotes
Amanda Gefter | New Scientist, on the first edition
“How can we decide what counts as science? That is the central question of this brilliant book, which ought to be required reading for, well, everyone.”
Lou Marinoff | Times Higher Education, on the first edition
“Pigliucci’s book serves a seriously worthwhile purpose: that of giving you, the reader, tools and instructions for assembling your very own ‘baloney-detector.’ Armed with this, you stand a vastly improved chance of separating the wheat of reliable knowledge from the chaff of fashionable nonsense in your daily harvest of data.”
Discover, on the first edition
“A tour of solid science, shaky science, and pseudoscience, this crash course in critical thinking by biologist and philosopher Pigliucci includes handy rules for evaluating the confused public discourse on climate change, evolution, and even UFOs.”
Metascience, on the first edition
“Pigliucci’s attack of high-stilted nonsense not only offers a great service in a world that is littered with irrational beliefs and pseudoscience, it is also an incisive and philosophically informed analysis of the nature of science and the pursuit of reliable knowledge. With books like [this] on the shelf, it is clear that there is more to skepticism than intellectual garbage disposal.”
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