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Articles

No. 1(14) (2018): The Future in the Social Sciences

The Revolution is Coming! The Critique of Pop-Science Attempts at Future Prognostics

  • Adrian Wesołowski
Submitted
23 May 2020
Published
01-04-2018

Abstract

This article aims at describing the emergence of pop-science and its success both in popular culture and the academy. The key term, an English abbreviation of “popular science”, is understood here as a tendency of some academic authors to posit a daring claim with full conviction of its validity despite its obvious methodological faults. The recurring theme of revolutions serves as a prism through which the pop-scientific attitude towards sociological tradition is presented. The critical analysis of works of Steven Pinker and Yuval Noah Harari and the collation of common critical arguments lead to extracting a set of constituents for the pop-scientific reasoning. The contextualisation of these elements allows exposing the sources and possible dangers of legitimising pop-science.

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