Epistemology
What distinguishes scientific knowledge from metaphysics, ideology, speculation, or ordinary belief?
Scientific claims answer to observation and experience.
Knowledge should be modeled on the methods and successes of the sciences.
Meaningful inquiry is disciplined by verification, logic, and the critique of metaphysics.
Scientific concepts are tools within inquiry, tested by consequences and problem-solving power.
The issue is analyzed through explanation, confirmation, theory change, models, and scientific realism.
Demarcation asks what makes science distinctive without turning science into a myth. The problem runs from empiricist trust in observation through positivist and logical-positivist programs to later philosophy of science.
The answer matters because modern philosophy often borrows authority from science while also questioning its limits.