HLTHAGE 1AA3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Reductionism, Stethoscope, Social Forces
4 Mar 2013
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Document Summary
Medical and scientific knowledge historical and cross-cultural context: Positivism: model of science upon which medicine is based; described by attributes such as objectivity, precision, certainty, generalizability, quantification, replication, and causality. A number of social theorists and researchers have demonstrated that beliefs regarding scientific objectivity are problematic. Kuhn (1962): described development of science and how the methods, assumptions and even the subject of science are infused with cultural categories. Freund and mcguire (1991): also agreed with kuhn and said that the value assumptions of contemporary medicine as mind-body dualism, physical reductionism, specific etiology, machine metaphor, and regimen and control. Said to have begun with a philosopher named descartes who argued the case for the separation of the mind from the body. Foucault (1975) described the changes in the 18th and 19th centuries that allowed the physician to view the patient"s body directly through the clinical gaze and not merely indirectly through the patient"s verbal descriptions.
