CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Bekő, Éva Mária |
|---|---|
| Title | Is Astrology Necessarily a Pseudoscience? |
| Summary | In my thesis I investigate the criteria of demarcation in philosophy of science and analyse the case of Western astrology. I argue that although astrology has exhibited several pseudoscientific features in the past, in the future it can be changed to a progressive scientific research programme according to Lakatos’ and Thagard’s criteria of demarcation. However, I show that scientific astrology may be quite different from traditional astrology. I argue that in order to make astrology scientific, Gauquelin’s statistical experiments should be continued, since statistics may reveal correlations between planetary positions in natal horoscopes and occurrences in human lives. Gauquelin prepared statistics only concerning professions and common planetary positions between children’s and their parents’ horoscope but I point out that further, more sophisticated statistics should also be made. And if significant correlations were found, it should be explored how natal horoscopes and life events hang together, namely what kind of causal process exists between them. On the grounds of these investigations, astrology would raise and answer new questions and would introduce new theorems while rejecting old ones; therefore it would become a progressive scientific theory. |
| Supervisor | Howard Robinson |
| Department | Philosophy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/beko_eva-maria.pdf |
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