Folk science

Folk science describes ways of understanding and predicting the natural and social world, without the use of rigorous methodologies (see Scientific method). One could label all understanding of nature predating the Greeks as "folk science".

Folk science is often accepted as "common wisdom" in a given culture, and gets passed on as memes. According to some evolutionary psychologists, it may also reflect the output of evolved cognitive processes of the human mind which have been adapted in the course of human evolution.

Skeptics often investigate the influence and validity of folk science.

Some examples of folk science

• Folk biology
• Folk psychology
• Folk taxonomy
• Informal mathematics
• Naïve physics
• Physiognomy
• Folk linguistics

See also

• Ethnobiology
• Pseudoscience