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.

Skeptics often work to debunk folk science, or at least to investigate to what extent and in what ways a folk science makes true claims and valid inferences.

Some examples of folk science

 * naïve physics
 * folk psychology
 * physiognomy