The historical study of physiognomy meets the contemporary definition of a pseudoscience; the credence of the study of physiognomy in the present day varies. The practice was well-accepted by the ancient Greek philosophers, but fell into disrepute in the Middle Ages while practised by vagabonds and mountebanks.

Is physiognomy a science?

Physiognomy is the science of understanding a person's character or personality by studying the external physical features like the face.

Why is physiognomy a pseudoscience?

Because most efforts to specify such relationships have been discredited, physiognomy sometimes connotes pseudoscience or charlatanry. ... Physiognomy was regarded by those who cultivated it both as a mode of discriminating character by the outward appearance and as a method of divination from form and feature.