History and Diagnosis of `Scientific' Medicine
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11923976 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Steven Epstein (0000-0001-7061-1366, Department of Sociology, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093-0533, USA; fax: +1 619 534 4753, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1998 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 489-495 |
| Publication date | 1998-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Studies of Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0306-3127 • E-ISSN: 1460-3659 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/030631298028003006 |
| OpenAlex | W1980812448 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 2 |
The term 'scientific medicine' must count as one of the most consequential yet perplexing uses of the word 'scientific' of our times. After all, in what sense do health professionals, patients, biomedical researchers or science studies analysts understand the practice of medicine to be scientific or not? For many, the mysterious doings of doctors are considered scientific because modern medicine is taken to be grounded in laboratory sciences: the expertise of physicians rests on their ability skilfully to apply knowledge that comes their way from elsewhere. By this reading, physicians are not scientific except in a derivative sense. In fact, in the subtle practice of their healing 'arts', they may often scoff at textbook knowledge and privilege their own, hard-earned judgement and hands-on experience. And in an age of managed care, such an insistence on craft knowledge and skills may prove the best line of defence of professional autonomy against the intrusions of the bureaucrats
Autonomy · Common sense · Craft · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Health care · Judgement · Political science · Privilege (computing · Reading (process · Sociology · Sociology of scientific knowledge · The arts · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy · Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,13 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2021 (11) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |