Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on Experimental Practice in Medicine and the Life Sciences |
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Authors: | Stahnisch Frank W |
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Institution: | Institute for History, Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine, Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Am Pulverturm 13, D-55131 Mainz, Germany. Stahnisc@uni-mainz.de |
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Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to discuss a key question in the history and philosophy of medicine, namely how scholars should treat
the practices and experimental hypotheses of modern life science laboratories. The paper seeks to introduce some prominent
historiographical methods and theoretical approaches associated with biomedical research. Although medical scientists need
no convincing that experimentation has a significant function in their laboratory work, historians, philosophers, and sociologists
long neglected its importance when examining changes in medical theories or progress in scientific knowledge. The reason appears
to have been the academic influence of the then dominant tradition in the history of ideas, but was also due to a misconception
of what could usefully be termed the view on “historical ontology.” During the last two decades, there have been many books
and research articles that have turned towards the subject, so that the study of experimental practice has become a major
trend in the contemporary history and philosophy of medicine. A closer look at the issue of laboratory research shows that
concepts in medicine and the life sciences cannot be understood as historically constant, free-standing ideas, but have to
be regarded as dependent on local research settings. They often carry particular “social memories” with them and thus acquire
important ethical implications. |
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