If there is pseudo-science, is there also pseudo-philosophy?

[image: René Descartes, right, with Queen Christina of Sweden, Wikimedia Commons]

Back in 1995, fresh off my postdoc year at Brown University, I moved to Knoxville, TN, to take up my first tenure-track academic position, as an assistant professor of botany and evolutionary biology. I knew next to nothing of Tennessee, except that ads about Jack Daniels whiskey were popular in Italy… I was obviously excited to come to campus and begin setting up my new laboratory…