Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Cottingley fairies
One of the most unusual hoaxes in the history of photography, perpetrated by two preteen English girls in the summer of 1917. During World War I, Frances Griffiths, age 10, returned home thoroughly wet one afternoon, explaining to her unsympathetic mother that she had fallen into a brook while playing with the local fairies. Her…
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Variant cosmologies
Derived from two ancient Greek words, Kosmos meaning universe and logos meaning reasoning, the study of any scientific, mythological, or religious theory of the universe, particularly those involving heavenly bodies. Until about 400 years ago, thinking about the origin and working of the universe was a matter of speculation and religious faith. Creation myths are…
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Theories of correspondence
One of the basic theories of “truth,” where the goal of enquiry stands in contrast to “falsity” and not in contrast to “opinion.” The correspondence theory is the most commonly used theory of the nature of truth because it says quite simply that a statement is true if it corresponds with reality, with the facts…
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Frederick Albert cook
US explorer best remembered for making false claims about his achievements. Cook was surgeon to both the Peary Arctic expedition (1891-92) and the Belgian Antarctic expedition (1897-99). From 1903 to 1906, he led an expedition to Mount McKinley (6187 meters [20,300 feet]) in Alaska, the highest mountain in North America. Despite his lack of surveying…
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Conviction science
A term used to describe a common characteristic of both scientists and pseudoscientists the unshakeable conviction of rightness, whatever the evidence. Sometimes this conviction is so strong that it defies disproof. The holder knows his idea is right, and any denial is dismissed with varying levels of contempt. The denier has not understood, or is…
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Continental drift
The idea that continents move horizontally. Once considered pseudoscientific, this tenet is now part of mainstream science. Before the modern revolution of plate tectonics of the 1950s and 1960s, the idea that the continents might move horizontally around the globe seemed ludicrous; yet prima facie evidence had long been known, in the approximate match between…
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Condon report
During the next two decades, the air force’s UFO project underwent several reorganizations and name changes, the final name being Project Blue Book. The information gathered was evaluated and discussed not only by the air force but by the Department of Defense. By 1966, many reports of UFO sightings and even abductions had generated a…
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Communigraph
An instrument created in the early 1930s to facilitate the reception of scientifically evidential communications with the spirits of the dead. It was a product of the ASHK1R-JOBSON Trianion guild, which grew out of the work of three British researchers, A. J. Ashdown, B. K. Kirby, and George Jobson. Jobson died in 1930 and purportedly…
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George Combe
Scottish lawyer and author of popular books on PHRENOLOGY. One of 13 children, Combe grew up in a poor family in a partially industrialized section of Edinburgh, Scotland. His father owned and operated a small brewery in the building where the family lived. George was educated in local schools, and apprenticed in a law office…
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Colorado man
Spurious prehistoric man. Following his more famous Cardiff giant hoax, P. T. Barnum ordered the construction of another primitive human specimen that he could exhibit. He had learned from the criticism of the earlier effort and directed that the new man be constructed out of more convincing materials, including actual bones, and that the arms…
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