Folk science
Understanding nature and society without formal scientific methods.
Folk science, sometimes called folk knowledge or folk classification, refers to the ways people understand and predict the natural and social world without relying on formal, rigorous methods like the scientific method. It is often contrasted with a mechanistic or "clockwork" view of the world, where every part’s function and its relationship to all other parts are known in detail. In any given culture, folk science is typically accepted as common wisdom, and people often don’t realize their own explanations and understandings are based on it.
How folk science develops in humans isn’t fully understood, but even infants as young as eight months show some grasp of basic folk biology concepts. As children grow, their system of inferences shifts and develops. This tendency isn’t limited to children—adults also tend to believe they have a more complete understanding of mechanisms than they actually do. Because folk science comes naturally to people, even scientists are not immune; anthropological studies show that scientists’ theories often stem from models containing gaps, deductions, and analogies. While these simplifications aren’t part of the scientific method, they often work, and scientific advances continue to use folk scientific methods. In some cases, researchers deliberately look to folk methods to improve their own work. Notable examples of folk science intuition—such as the belief that the world is flat or that the sun revolves around the Earth—highlight why it’s important to use the scientific method to gather data that confirms or disproves folk theories.
Formal sciences can influence folk science as they permeate society. For instance, the concept of genetics is familiar to most 21st-century adults at a layperson’s level, leading to different inferences and folk scientific conclusions than those of a population without that knowledge. However, some kinds of folk science appear in all cultures, though with significant cross-cultural variation. Folk biology, for example, shows common patterns across human societies, such as grouping plants and animals into hierarchies (like “oaks” being a subgroup within “trees”), but the specific categories and their organization can differ greatly from one culture to another.
Examples of folk science include folk biology, folk history, folk linguistics, folk psychology, folk taxonomy, informal mathematics, naïve
- field
- Epistemology, anthropology of knowledge
- known_for
- Describing pre-scientific and intuitive understanding of nature and society
- examples
- Folk biology, folk history, folk linguistics, folk psychology, folk taxonomy, informal mathematics, naïve physics, physiognomy, weather lore
Lore & Background
Folk science refers to intuitive, non-scientific understanding present in all cultures and time periods, including modern ones. It develops naturally in humans. Even children as young as 8 months old have been shown to understand some root concepts of folk biology, and children's understanding shifts as they age, with their system of inferences developing as they grow. Folk science is often accepted as 'common wisdom' in a given culture, and people often do not realize that their explanations and understandings rely on it. While this is common in children, even adults tend to believe they have a more complete understanding of mechanisms than they really do.
Reader's Guide
Folk science matters because it represents a universal, intuitive mode of reasoning that persists even in modern scientific contexts. Because folk science is something people, even children, do naturally, scientists are not exempt; anthropological studies show that scientists' theories often stem from models with gaps, deductions, and analogies. While these simplifications are not part of the scientific method, they often work, and scientific advances continue to use folk scientific methods. In some cases, researchers deliberately look to folk methods to augment or improve their own. Notable examples of folk science intuition—such as the world being flat or the sun revolving around the Earth—clarify why it is important to continue using the scientific method to gather data to confirm or deny folk scientific theories. Formal sciences, due to their thorough permeation of society, can ultimately influence folk sciences; for instance, the concept of genetics is familiar to most adults in the 21st century but at a layperson level, leading to different inferences than those reached by a population without that knowledge. However, some kinds of folk science exist in all cultures; folk biology, for example, is similar in all human societies, including how plants and animals are grouped and the hierarchies of these groups.
Did You Know?
- Even children as young as 8 months old show some grasp of basic folk biology concepts, but folk biology categories vary significantly across cultures.
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