Karl Popper, a famous philosopher of science, addressed that question by examining what is not science and is what he called ‘pseudo-science’. Marxism, astrology and Freud’s theories about the mind were all ‘pseudo-science’ according to Popper.
He held the view that science was neither empirical nor inductive. Scientific knowledge is not arrived at through observation and the formulation of generalised theories. He maintained that science formed part of a natural human activity of trial and error. What gives it its rigour is the determination to subject theories to the test and to discard those which fail.
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