Cinta de Moebio: Revista de Epistemología de Ciencias Sociales

Escobar, C. (2018) Criterios de demarcación, pseudociencia y cientificidad en el derecho. Cinta moebio 61: 123-139. doi: 10.4067/S0717-554X2018000100123

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Demarcation criteria, pseudocience and scientificity in law

Christian Escobar-Jiménez (cmescobar@puce.edu.ec) Escuela de Sociología y Ciencias Políticas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (Quito, Ecuador) ORCID: 0000-0003-1940-2096

Abstract

This article analyses the epistemic status of law and its presumption of being a science in relation with the so-called demarcation criterion proposed by different philosophers of science. Such criteria are the main analytical elements to differentiate scientific discourses from those who are not and the ones who pretend to be. In relation to those, pseudoscience and law are treated, to finally conclude with the exposition of the case of Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, in which a judicial process defined demarcation criteria. This paper shows how the demarcation criteria of science and the concept of pseudoscience cannot be applied to law science given its own rationality.

Key words: demarcation, law, science, pseudoscience, truth.