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The demarcation problem, i.e. the problem of differentiating science from pseudo science has been on my mind recently. This might be considered a philosophy topic for philoSE but since my question has mostly historical character and related significantly to the development of science, I thought this was a better place than philoSE.

So the question is: Does anybody have literature references discussing science vs pseudo science (or science versus religion) that date back further than the time of Hume or Descartes? It doesn't necessarily need to be under the name of science vs non-science, anything that pertains to this discussion that is earlier than Hume would be much appreciated.

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Galileo was way before Hume and even before Descartes. His The Assayer was the foundational text of modern science and simultaneously also a devastating critique of what he saw as pseudosience. The funny thing is that Galileo was actually wrong about the specific point of the nature of the comets :-)

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