Category talk:Paranormal

Untitled
note: moved all content from Category:Paranormal phenomena to this Category:Paranormal here and sorting subcategories. --Ollj 10:30, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Category sorting and definition problems
I want to ban assumptions and words like "purportedly" from the definition of the articles and their categories below.

I was sorting paranormal pages and categories and have now problems with the categories definition to set them in general correlation to each other. "Especially Paranormal to Pseudoscience". I look for generaly correct (self-evident) definitions of the following article categories to sort the articles and categories logically into them, not assumptions. They also need to be in correlation to each other and should have clear border definitions of what one is NOT. only have specifically limited correct correlations; First thought was "all pseudoscience articles have paranormal/Anomalous phenomenon content, therefore pseudoscience is a subcategory of paranormal"/Anomalous phenomenon, but that was far too narrow for some definitions of pseudoscience.

The definitions are not yet clear/self-evident enough for a general subcategorisation I want to have. This is just a list of short definition quotes to be discussed and logically linked to each other. Definition must be in the article or cited source.

Generally this is about "phenomenon" and "concepts" about them, sorted in categories of that those are and are not. The words "phenomenon" "anomaly" "study" "field" are cut due to obviousness. Also see Wikipedia_talk:Wikiproject_Paranormal.

Categories.Funtamental.Society.Paranormal

 * Not scientifically explainable
 * No physically possible according to current scientific assumptions.
 * Also includes its "related to Paranormal" Article categories: UFOs, Cryptids

Scientific scepticism

 * (skeptic towards paranormal claims)

Spirituality

 * The Paranormal concepts of spirits, spiritual energy fields, auras, ghosts, death, reincarnation, healing hands, angels, demons...

Parapsychology

 * Awareness or influence of external objects
 * no physical means

Anomalous phenomenon (not Anomaly)

 * Real observations.
 * Hard to reproduce.
 * Often deemed pseudoscienfific, partly because of no reprodcibility.
 * No agreeable rational explanation.
 * No clear explanation, consensus reality or established framework.

preternatural

 * beyond natural, (latin word meaning)
 * fiction, including Lycanthropes (such as Werewolves), Vampires and Zombies.
 * not observed in nature, beyond laws of nature.
 * no verifiable measurement.

Supernatural
(often used interchangeably with preternatural due to blurry borders like fallen angels descenting from supernatural to preternatural)
 * exceeding natural (latin word meaning)
 * religious relating to God or a god, deity, demigod, ghost, spirit, divine power, invisible agent, or devil
 * includes Spirituality
 * includes preternatural (by latin word definition)
 * miraculous.
 * beyond the visible observable universe, outside the natural world.
 * beyond scientific study.
 * not observed in nature.
 * no verifiable measurement.

Occult

 * hidden, secret (latin word meaning)
 * organizations or orders, and the teachings and practices as taught by them.
 * hidden (from plain sight) wisdom, deeper truth beyond the surface.
 * initiation needed.

Category.Funtamental.Nature.Science
(needs "what science is not" sources)
 * knowledge (latin word menaing)
 * must adhere to the scientific method (observing, making a model/hypothesis, testing the model/hypothesis)
 * Falsifiability (must be able to be tested wrong)
 * Must be reliable, repeatable, valid for any time.
 * Control possible occurences as far as possible, as opposed to the passive acceptance of opportunistic data. (to exclude bias)

Pseudoscience

 * "false knowledge" (word definition by greek roots 1843)
 * inaccurately or deceptively described as science.
 * not science.
 * no sufficient scientific research or diverges from the required scientific standards (methods)
 * no application of the scientific method. (from fringe science)
 * Reproducibility is typically a problem. (from fringe science)

Protoscience

 * Appears to conform to the scientific method.
 * Needs further research.
 * Has potential to become a science or leads to a scientific field. Superseded scientific theory
 * Not (yet) falsifiable because of limited physical abilities. (would need more time, a larger accelerator)
 * Not (yet) accepted as science or verified by a consensus of scientists.

Fringe science

 * unliely, unusual, fantastic
 * not irrational (you gotta love double negatives)
 * basis in some established scientific principle. (you gotta love the "some" limitation)
 * some resemblance to the norms of the scientific method.
 * no manipulatiopn, bias, agenda
 * reproduceable (claimed indirectly in its article)

Junk science (bunk science)

 * agenda driven
 * scientific data, research, analyses or claims which are perceived to be driven by political, financial or other questionable motives (e.g. ridiculing scienctific methods).
 * no standard methodology (fringe science)
 * not science. (logical conclusion)

Scientific misconduct

 * violation of scientific ethic; Misleading, manipulation, plagiarism,improper credit or violation of ethical standarts.

--Ollj 12:34, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Anomalous Phenomena category
I thought it best to add Category:Anomalous Phenomena as a sub-category for now, if only so it can easily be found for proper sorting later. Probably the two articles in it belong in just the Paranormal category. —Helfaery 05:51, 12 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Since I've merged Canneto di Caronia fires into Caronia (see Talk:Caronia), which is in the Paranormal Places category, there is only one article (New England's Dark Day) in Category:Anomalous Phenomena. I'm leaving that article in the category, however, since I don't know whether the Anomalous Phenomena category will/should be deleted. --Helfaery 06:16, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Change definition
I changed the definition of paranormal basically because paranormal usually includes such things as UFOs, Bigfoot, Psi, etc, which are not outside the range of scientific investigation. I doubt that most of the subjects of pages included in this category can be assumed to be "not observable in nature, and therefore beyond verifiable measurement." To say that they are usually supernatural is a POV, it assumes that they can't be observed no matter what.

Martinphi 21:55, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

To say that they are scientifically observable, when they have not been scientifically observed is also a POV. Mighty Antar 19:41, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

category
There's a discussion over at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Paranormal about whether Category:Paranormal should be categorized under Category:Pseudoscience or its parent Category:Fringe theory. We could use some more opinions so please join in. — Jeraphine Gryphon (talk) 08:08, 29 July 2015 (UTC)