Not even wrong
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "other uses". Template:DMCA "Not even wrong" is a phrase used to describe pseudoscience or bad science. It describes an argument or explanation that purports to be scientific but uses faulty reasoning or speculative premises, which can be neither affirmed nor denied and thus cannot be discussed rigorously and scientifically.
Origin of the expression
The phrase is generally attributed to the theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli, who was known for his colorful objections to incorrect or careless thinking.[1][2]
Rudolf Peierls documents an instance in which "a friend showed Pauli the paper of a young physicist which he suspected was not of great value but on which he wanted Pauli's views. Pauli remarked sadly, 'It is not even wrong'."[3][4] This may also be quoted as "That is not only not right; it is not even wrong", or in Pauli's native German, Script error: No such module "Lang". Peierls remarks that quite a few apocryphal stories of this kind have been circulated, and mentions that he listed only the ones personally vouched for by him. He quotes another example when Pauli replied to Lev Landau, "What you said was so confused that one could not tell whether it was nonsense or not."[3]
In this model, a distinction is drawn between things that are simply wrong (e.g., due to an ordinary factual or logical error) and things that are so completely wrong that proving their errors was hopeless.[5]
Peter Woit uses the phrase "not even wrong" to mean "unfalsifiable".[6]
See also
References
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- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Shermer M (2006). "Wronger Than Wrong". Scientific American. 295 (5): 40. Bibcode:2006SciAm.295e..40S. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1106-40. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Jung, C. G.; Pauli, Wolfgang; Meier, C. A.; Zabriskie, Beverley; Roscoe, David (1 July 2014). Atom and Archetype: The Pauli/Jung Letters, 1932–1958. Princeton University Press. p. xxxiii. ISBN 978-0-691-16147-1.
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Peierls, R. (1960). "Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, 1900–1958". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 5: 186. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1960.0014. S2CID 62478251.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Peierls, Rudolf (1992). "Where Pauli Made His 'Wrong' Remark". Physics Today. 45 (12): 112. Bibcode:1992PhT....45l.112P. doi:10.1063/1.2809934.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Thomas, Gary (16 April 2007). Education and Theory. McGraw-Hill Education (UK). p. 15. ISBN 978-0-335-23027-3.
Pauli had three levels of insult for what he saw as bad science: 'Wrong!', 'Completely wrong!' and 'Not even wrong!' – the last meaning that the work couldn't even be shown to be wrong.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Burkeman, Oliver (19 September 2005). "Not even wrong". The Guardian.
External links
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- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Peter Woit (20 March 2024). "20 Years of Not Even Wrong". Not Even Wrong - Columbia Math Department. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
