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Feng shui sources

• Stuart Vyse says "Feng shui represents a very popular superstition."
• "Feng shui is an eclectic mix of naturalistic philosophy, environmental awareness, ancient astronomy and astrology, fortune-telling, magic, and folk traditions. living harmoniously with nature is evident in many feng shui principles, some of which are quite rational. For example, feng shui teaches that building a home on the south side of a hill is optimal. This is likely due to the fact that China is subject to bitterly cold north winds, so a home built on the south side of a hill would have natural insulation from those winds. Feng shui also teaches that a home should be placed midway up a hill, not at the base or the top. This is also logical given China's topography: building one's home at the top of a mountain often would expose it to the same frigid northerly winds, and building it at the base of a hill could bring disaster because of the oft-flooding rivers in China. From these logical foundations however, feng shui has grown into a vast and complex tapestry of protoscientific or pseudoscientific theories, fortune-telling, and superstition."
• "Obviously, geomancy is an application of the "Law of Similar" in which two properties are linked because of superficial appearances.  The Law of Similar is central to ancient folklore and superstition throughout the world As a set of aesthetic stylistic principles that emphasizes balance and harmony with nature, feng shui appeals to some (just as one might prefer "traditional" or "contemporary" style).  However, feng shui has nothing to do with science.  Its principles are no more scientific than the principles of renaissance art, modern jazz, or Japanese flower arrangement."
• "Feng Shui defies categorization.  It has been erroneously called magic, science, religion, mysticism, and charlantry, or "the art or pseudo-science of manipulating the occult forces that are believed to run through a landscape, site, house, or even room."  It is also called "geomancy", but is does not resemble the ancient Greek and Near Eastern magical art of geomancy. Thus, Feng Shui seems to have begun as grounded in folk-scientific observations, but it was soon mystified with a steadily increasing panoply of religious and magical practices.  The result was a blend of science, religion, and magic.  However, the Chinese do not see it as a blend, nor was it one historically.  To them, it is a single institution and a single knowledge system.  The categories of magic, science, and religion are modern concepts that simply do not apply to classical Chinese thought about such matters. The label "pseudo-science" presupposes some real science to serve as the reference point.  Feng Shui in premodern times, however, was not attempting to be a "science".  The tests that would have disproved it had not been invented, and the definition of "science" that would have excluded it had not been elaborated.  This sort of folk Feng Shui survives in China, Korea, and neighboring countries to this day.  However, the Feng Shui practice in the Western world today can reasonably be called a pseudo-science, with experts reaping great profits by purporting to use natural forces to bring about certain results"
• "At many points, Agassi discusses pseudoscience, superstition, 'intellectual rubbish', and other such... One subject not mentioned in Agassi's extensive oeuvre is Feng Shui.  This is no special fault, as it is equally not mentioned by any modern philosopher or educator who has discussed pseudoscience, the demarcation question, or the responsibility of schools..."
• A raft of popular and highly regarded books devoted to pseudoscientific belief systems simply fail to mention feng shui. Nor is it mentioned in the long review article 'Science, Pseudo-science, and Science Falsely So-called' (Thurs and Numbers 2013) or the edited 23-chapter Philosophy of Pseudoscience (Pigliucci and Boudry 2013). And, revealingly, feng shui does not appear in the 35-chapter, 472-page Chinese Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (Dainian and Cohen 1996). The foregoing books, journal special issues, and research papers contain expositions and criticisms of practices such as alchemy, astrology, allopathy, alternative medicine, anthroposophy, astral projection, aural photography, dowsing, chiropractic, Christian Science, clairvoyance, cold fusion, creationism, dowsing, [sic] ESP, Gaia, graphology, homeopathy, Kirlian aura photography, magic, mesmerism, N-rays, occultism, parapsychology, past-life regression, phrenology, poltergeistism, polywater, psychokinesis, psychoanalysis, scientology, séance communication, spiritualism, telepathy, UFOlogy, vitalism, witchcraft, astro-therapy, and more obscure and doubtful practices. Yet not one of the books has 'feng shui' as an index entry. Feng shui is not mentioned in any of the following best-selling books on pseudoscience: Martin Gardner, Science: Good, Bad and Bogus: A Skeptical Look at Extraordinary Claims (Gardner 1981); Michael Friedlander, At the Fringes of Science (Friedlander 1995); Patrick Grim, Philosophy of Science and the Occult (Grim 1990); Terence Hines, Pseudoscience and the Paranormal (Hines 2003); Wendy Kaminer, Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and the Perils of Piety (Kaminer 1999); Robert Park, Voodoo Science: The Road from The Road from Foolishness to Fraud (Park 2000), or his Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science (Park 2008); Massimo Pigliucci, Nonsense on Stilts (Pigliucci 2010); Michael Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and other Confusions of our Time (Shermer 1997); Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World (Sagan 1996); and Victor Stenger, Physics and Psychics: The Search for a World Beyond the Senses (Stenger 1990). It is a productive exercise to explain why, for these major books, feng shui is 'missing in action'.

More

• "resource-related religious taboo".

References

1. Vyse, Stuart (2020-01-23). Superstition: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-19-255131-3.
2. Puro, Jon (2002). "Feng Shui". In Shermer, Michael (ed.). The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience. ABC-CLIO. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-57607-653-8.
3. Smith, Jonathan C. (2011-09-26). Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-5894-0.
4. Anderson, Eugene (2007-08-27). "Feng Shui". Encyclopedia of Environment and Society: FIVE-VOLUME SET. SAGE Publications. pp. 658–659. ISBN 978-1-4522-6558-2.
5. Bar-Am, Nimrod; Gattei, Stefano (2017-06-22). Encouraging Openness: Essays for Joseph Agassi on the Occasion of His 90th Birthday. Springer. p. 53. ISBN 978-3-319-57669-5.
6. Matthews, Michael R. (2019-07-18). Feng Shui: Teaching About Science and Pseudoscience. Springer. p. 33. ISBN 978-3-030-18822-1.
7. "Culture and the Wild". The Rediscovery of the Wild. The MIT Press. 2013. ISBN 978-0-262-51833-8.