Is naturopathy based on pseudoscience?
Bunge (1984) has provided a useful checklist for recognizing pseudosciences. While naturopathy would qualify on almost all of Bunges criteria, there are a few that are especially noteworthy. They are paraphrased in the numbered statements below. 1. Pseudosciences are stagnant, preferring to perpetuate unquestionable dogma from the past rather than progressing as new knowledge emerges from intellectual ferment, debate, internal criticism and, above all, new research. When ideas do change in pseudosciences, they do so in a cosmetic way and usually in response to popular fashions rather than empirical research. In this electronic age, one might expect an organizations page on the World Wide Web to extol its newest theories and latest scientific breakthroughs. Visiting the web page of the Canadian Naturopathic Education and Research Society, however, we found instead reverence for the past as, for example, in a laudatory obituary for the late Joseph Boucher, N.D. Boucher had been a member
