quasiscience

English

Alternative forms

• quasi-science

Etymology

From quasi- +‎ science.

Noun

quasiscience (countable and uncountable, plural quasisciences)

1. An area of inquiry that makes use of some of the methods of science, but which fails to be a true science.
   • 1985, Alistair Cameron Crombie, Michael A. Hoskin, History of Science, page 441:

     Bibliography series follows the by now familiar format, with some fifteen hundred annotated entries concentrating rather heavily on physics and philosophy but also including sections on schools and universities and on 'quasiscience'.

   • 1991, John M. Kloos, A Sense of Deity: The Republican Spirituality of Dr. Benjamin Rush:

     On every level, this quasiscience tried to locate the tenor of nature that grounded all philosophy.

   • 1996, The Atheist - Volumes 28-29, page 144:

     In India, one widely prevalent quasiscience, astrology, influences personal, interpersonal, public and even political decisions.

Usage notes

Some people use the term quasiscience to refer to a point on the continuum from hard science (such as physics and chemistry), through soft science (such as sociology) to quasiscience (such as anthropology, in which the nature of the subject matter precludes actual scientific research), to pseudoscience (such as astrology, where there are only trappings of science). Others use quasiscience as a synonym or hypernym of pseudoscience, and still others use quasiscience as a synonym of soft science. Contention about such usages is part of the sociology of science.