Have you ever felt sad because something is disappearing around you? Know you will miss something before it is gone? Feel pain as your environment is pulled out from under your feet? Glenn Albrecht defines this feeling as Solastalgia. As an environmental philosopher he uses this term to understand the impact of the destruction of nature by focusing on how humans both affect and are affected by the changing natural landscape. His theory can be easily applied to the purely human that each of us live in – culture. The same loss and pain we feel when we lose a natural part of our environment can also be felt as the cultural environment we grew up with fade or change. We may cling to stands of that culture long after they stop being integrated within the broader scene, or we may decide to cling to something new, but that stands in direct opposition to the newest knowledge. In a word, pseudoscience. Of course, it is not that simple. Many factors go into someone’s choice in believing something over something else. However, the seductively simple answers for complex questions of life that pseudoscience provides are suggestive. One historical (now defunct) example of this is the belief in phrenology, which posits that areas of the skull can be used to determine the size of different areas of the brain (such as critical thinking or spite or religiosity). It was primarily created in support of Eugenics, it in itself a way of pushing against the social movements that advocated rights for marginalized groups. While Albrecht used this theory to advocate conservation, in the realm of pseudoscience there is no going back. However, an understanding of while believers cling to these disproved notions allows those on the outside work in reasonable ways to change incorrect perceptions.
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AuthorI am a student at the University of New Mexico working on a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in Professional Writing. I am fascinated by why people believe weird things and how that impacts broader society. ArchivesCategories
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