Pseudoscience: Critical Thinking and Author
People often regard the ideas that are generally accepted by the multitudes as “truths”. However, many of them are not scientifically proven and lack logical and reasonable explanations. According to Saupe’s “What is Pseudoscience?”, such ideas are called “pseudoscience”. To be more specific, they are claimed to be scientific, but do not have objective evidence to prove that they are true. If people cannot distinguish between pseudoscience and scientifically proved science, the results would be consequential. False science would lead to the misunderstanding of things and cause people to do things wrongly and might lead to harms and damages eventually. To evaluate if the information is credible, there are some standards; for example, check the credentials of the author, check the credibility of the sources of the information and the relevant sources that the information contains and see if the author has good logics to prove the information (Saupe, 2005). In the three articles, they all talked about the problems of globalization. They either claimed that globalization benefits the environment or causes harms. Among the three articles, “Green and Brown? Globalization and the Environment” by James J. Boyce appears to be the most credible. The most obvious indicator is that it comes from a published journal; according to the journal, the author’s credential is clearly addressed. In its thesis, the author examined the assumption that the “global North is relatively ‘green’ and the global South relatively ‘brown’”. He also argued that the claim of globalization leads to a convergence toward better or worse environmental practices cannot be proved by either theoretical or experimental evidence. To support his arguments, the author explained how it is uneven and what global polarization is. The arguments and the evidence the author used to prove his ideas are very logical and also credible since they are mainly from other peer-reviewed journals. The entire article
Cited: Boyce, J. K. (2004). Green and Brown? Globalization and The Environment. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 20(1), 105-128. Charles, J. A. (2004, July 14). The Environmental Benefits of Globalization. Global Envision. Retrieved from http://www.globalenvision.org/. Dolmas, J. (2004, September/October). Globalization: Myths and Realities. Federal Reserve Bank of Dellas, 13-14. Johnson, H. S., & Ridlen, S. F. (2013). Eggs and Cholesterol. Retrieved from University of Illinois Extensions website: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/. Saupe, S.G. (2005). What is Pseudoscience? Biology Department, St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN 56321.