Wiktionary

cargo cult science

English

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Etymology

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Coined by American physicist Richard Feynman in 1974 in his commencement address at Caltech, in reference to cargo cults.[1]

Noun

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cargo cult science (uncountable)

  1. Practices which have the appearance of being scientific, but do not actually follow the scientific method.

References

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  1. ^ Richard Feynman (1974) “Cargo Cult Science”, in Caltech commencement address‎[1]:
    I think the educational and psychological studies I mentioned are examples of what I would like to call Cargo Cult Science. […] So I call these things Cargo Cult Science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they’re missing something essential, because the planes don’t land.

Further reading

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