The Elastic Ruler
Placebo Responses, Clinical Trials, and Medical Knowledge
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10708099 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shane N Glackin (0000-0002-8346-8666, University of Exeter, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 92 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 750-767 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophy of Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8248 • E-ISSN: 1539-767X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/psa.2025.2 |
| OpenAlex | W4406478352 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 23 |
This article first poses a skeptical challenge to clinical trials in medicine. The efficacy of treatments is measured against placebo, but placebo responses are not constant. They fluctuate with demographic variables, and they seem to be increasing over time. We therefore find ourselves measuring with the equivalent of what Wittgenstein termed an “elastic ruler.” I then propose a “skeptical solution” to the problem. Elastic rulers are suitable tools for measuring dynamic, floating networks of values, like foreign currency exchanges. We can assuage the skeptical concerns by understanding clinical trials in this way; I suggest several practical guidelines for doing so
Alternative medicine · Clinical trial · Epistemology · Pathology · Physics · Placebo · Ruler · Health and Medical Research Impacts · Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Pain Management and Placebo Effect · Philosophy · Psychology
Inventing Temperature
On the Theory of Scales of Measurement
The Powerful Placebo
External validity of randomised controlled trials
The methodology of positive economics (1953)
The Probability Approach in Econometrics
Equipoise and the Ethics of Clinical Research
Causal Inference Using Potential Outcomes
Estimating causal effects of treatments in randomized and nonrandomized studies.
Statistics and Causal Inference
Grundrisse
The Dappled World
A Critique of Clinical Equipoise
Super Placebos
Open science, data sharing and solidarity
The relativity of ‘placebos’
The objectivity of scientific measures
The Elastic Ruler
Cultural Variations in the Placebo Effect
Science Outside the Laboratory
Philosophical investigations
Understanding and misunderstanding randomized controlled trials
Old and New Problems in Philosophy of Measurement
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |