Question

Beck's point can be seen as a generalization of some remarks made in "Astrology," in the paragraph mentioning Mars and Neptune. For example, as the "home" of the ancient god of the oceans, Neptune is associated with water and by further analogy also with indecisiveness. According to Beck, astrology cannot justify these associations. This suggests a way of repairing the fourth criticism of astrology by revising it as follows: (*) Astrology is a pseudoscience because it is in large part based on observations of analogies between aspects of nature, and astrology cannot justify these analogies. What's wrong with this criticism (*) as an attempt to show that astrology is a pseudoscience?

Answer 1

Hello. You forgot to enter the answer options. The options are:

a. Beck relies on an analogy himself when he says that astrological claims cannot be justified in the same way as are claims in chemistry and physics that rely on the periodic table. In saying this, he assumes that there is a disanalogy between astrology and real science. b. There could be scientific theories that rely on enlightening and instructive analogies but which themselves do not have the resources to justify those analogies. c. Beck makes the same mistake as is made in criticizing astrology as an excuse-generator for the missed predictions of astrologers. When he says “because astrologers have agreed that … ” he is criticizing the proponents of a theory and not the theory itself. d. This proposal ignores the fact that astrology is also in large part concerned with making accurate astronomical observations where analogy is not involved.

Answer:

b. There could be scientific theories that rely on enlightening and instructive analogies but which themselves do not have the resources to justify those analogies.

Step-by-step explanation:

There are scientific theories that are based on analogies and do not have a complete justification for these analogies. This is exactly what makes them theories, that is, they do not have concrete proof and 100% testified. Like the theory of evolution, among others.

However, this does not mean that astrology cannot be considered a pseudoscience. Since scientific theories show their analogies based on scientific concepts, which astrology does not do.