Cargo cult science - Definition and Overview

Cargo Cult Science is a term invented by Richard Feynman to describe a particular type of pseudoscience in which all the superficial aspects of scientific inquiry are adhered to, although the underlying causal link between the conditions and the outcome is not understood. Feynman introduced the phrase in a speech at Caltech in 1974, the transcript of which can be found in the book Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! : Adventures of a Curious Character (Norton, 1985) and on many web sites. He based the phrase on an existing concept in anthropology, the cargo cult.

External links

• Cargo Cult Science (pdf) (http://clsdemo.caltech.edu/archive/00000051/02/CargoCult.pdf) by Richard P. Feynman.
• Cargo Cult Science (html) (http://clsdemo.caltech.edu/archive/00000051/02/CargoCult.htm) by Richard P. Feynman.