The Art and Science of Surgery

Innovation and Concepts of Medical Practice in Operative Fracture Care, 1960s-1970s

Bibliographic Data

ID5187090
AuthorsThomas Schlich (McGill University, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume32
Issue1
Pages65-87
Publication date2007-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243906293886
OpenAlexW2110660667
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited37

In this article, I am using the example of the introduction of osteosynthesis into surgical routine practice to analyze the use of the notions of art and science in medical innovation. The examination of the renegotiations of power and responsibility associated with the introduction of this new technique shows that proponents and critics actively linked their arguments to more fundamental epistemological and social issues. The proponents claimed to manage the uncertainties of innovation through making surgery more scientific, drawing on the ideals of control, rationality, objectivity, and predictability. The critics mobilized another discursive pattern. They considered surgery an art and emphasized the individuality, contingency, and situatedness of medical practice. I investigate the discursive function of these argumentative patterns and how they played out in the concrete example of this surgical technique

Argumentative · Contingency · Epistemology · Philosophy of science · Rationality · Sociology · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · History of Medical Practice · Medical History and Innovations · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology