Use of the word “scientific”

Brewin, Thurstan

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(05)73248-7

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Indeed, claims to the firm rooting of biomedicine in scientific knowledge are widespread, as can be witnessed in the introductory chapters of clinical handbooks [see, for instance, Barker et al (1999); Isselbacher et al (1994); Kassirer & Kopelman (1991)], or in popular science books expressly dedicated to dispel any ideas that medicine might not be grounded in science [for example, Weatherall (1995)]. The abusive use of the word 'scientific' and the counterpart expression 'not scientific', however, has been noted at least by one author [Brewin (2000): 586], who wrote: 'Why not choose plainer words like abundant or scanty, convincing or unconvincing, objective or subjective? '…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Thought Style of Physicians

Camargo

2002

Soc Stud Sci

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The differential selection and assessment of knowledge is a key feature of medical practice. This paper presents a study of how doctors select and assess information in practice. Fourteen internal medicine professors from a relevant medical school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were selected through preliminary interviews with medical students. The professors were subjected to open-ended interviews. The resulting material was interpreted through a conceptual framework derived from Ludwik Fleck, in order to establish the relevant elements of the thought style characteristic of the way they select and acquire new knowledge. The thought style that emerged from this set of interviews can be briefly characterized as a largely intuitive, pragmatic, result-oriented search of relevant (that is, potentially useful in practice) information. The doctors sought sources with academic credibility, but they maintained primary interest in practical, experiential knowledge. They also expressed a rather sceptical stance, at times bordering on cynicism. Despite this mistrust, doctors lack the resources (time, knowledge of technical aspects of research, particularly in terms of epidemiology and statistics) to effectively assess knowledge that is constantly being force-fed to them. This relative lack of resources is worsened, on one side, by the perception of medicine as subject to frequent and major changes, and on the other by the vastly disproportionate forces available to those who effectively produce and distribute such knowledge.

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Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Thought Style of Physicians

Camargo

2002

Soc Stud Sci

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“…Each of the z−derivatives were approximated by 2nd-order accurate centred finite differences. In solving the constraints we used the analytic value for R z with m = 1 at the throat while the value for R x at the throat was always set from the Hamiltonian constraint (1). Standard boundary conditions were applied, namely reflection symmetry at the throat and static conditions at the outer boundary.…”

Section: Constraint Equationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable Evolution of a Maximally Sliced Schwarzschild Spacetime Using a Smooth Lattice

Brewin¹

2002

The Ninth Marcel Grossmann Meeting

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We will present results of a long term stable evolution, to t = 1000m, of a maximally sliced Schwarzschild blackhole using a smooth lattice method.In recent papers 1,2 we have shown how local sets of Riemann normal coordinates on a lattice can be used to generate numerical spacetimes. In this talk we will report on a combination of the ADM equations with the smooth lattice method to produce long term stable evolution of a maximally sliced Schwarzschild blackhole.A suitable lattice for a spherically symmetric space is a semi-infinite ladder. The ladder has rungs of length L x and each rung is separated by struts of length L z . With zero shift, the ADM equations on the lattice are Constraint equations

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“…Far too often writers don't say in which sense they are using the word. 2 Even within the medical profession needless misunderstanding is caused. The doctor who says he wants medicine to be more scientific and the doctor who says he wants it to be less scientific, may sound as if they hold opposite views, but in fact they may both want the same things.…”

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confidence: 99%