An -ology?

[marchesarosa]

It is well known that if a academic discipline has the word “science” as part of its name, then it is *NOT* a science. Those are the disciplines that suffer from “science envy,” wishing for, but never achieving the rigor, trustworthiness, and cachet of actual science. For example: political science, social science, climate science, environmental science, etc. Indeed, if one replaces the word “science” with the word “advocacy” the names become accurate: political advocacy, social advocacy, climate advocacy, environmental advocacy, etc.

Disciplines that are actually sciences have names like: physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, medicine, limnology, astronomy, geology, etc. While the absence of the word “science” in the name does not guarantee that the discipline reliably practices science (e.g. astrology, economics), the presence of the word “science” in the name is a guarantee that the discipline does not reliably practice science.

UnfrozenCavemanMD

[alancalverd]

I'm not sure which causes more nausea: "philosophy of science" or anything with "studies" attached.

I'm perfectly happy for philosophers to stick their heads up their own backsides but I can't abide people purporting to tell me how I think, especially when they get it wrong. And "studies" reeks of superficiality as much as philosophy reeks of bullshit.

But few can beat the School of Economic Science for sheer chutzpah.

[marchesarosa]

I'm not sure which causes more nausea: "philosophy of science" or anything with "studies" attached.

Women's Studies, Peace Studies! Remember these? Tee hee.

[principled]

Marchesa, Anything we can do, the US can do better...
www.collegeonline.org/library/choosing-degree/weird-classes.html

P