HSS 2321 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Reductionism, Stethoscope, Etiology

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Health Sciences
• Course: HSS 2321
• Professor: Kirsti Bissada

Document Summary

Medical and scientific knowledge: historical and cross-cultural context. Positivism is described by attributes such as objectivity, precision, certainty, generalizability, quantification, replication, and causality. Seeks to explain how the body functions, causes of disease, and methods of cure and treatment. Medical science is often considered to be outside of culture and social structure. A number of social theorists and researchers have demonstrated that beliefs regarding scientific objectivity are problematic. Kuhn (1962) has described the historical development of science and how the methods, assumptions, and subject matter of science are infused with cultural categories. Freund, mcguire, and podhurst (2003) have expanded this argument and specified the value assumptions of contemporary medicine as: mind-body dualism, physical reductionism, specific etiology, machine metaphor, and regimen and control. Physical reductionism: emphasizes the physically observable at the expense of other aspects of the individual, such as the subjectively experienced mental, sensual, and emotional.