Miles Jackson wrote:
>
> joanna wrote:
> >
> >
> > Miles Jackson wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> . In contrast, recent research
> >> on hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women has shown that
> >> the "pump em with estrogen" strategy has no positive therapeutic
> >> effects and actually increases a woman's risk of ovarian cancer.
> >
> > But Miles, when estrogen therapy was introduced, there were lots of
> > tests that demonstrated it was the best thing since sliced bread.
> >
>
> Yes, and it was through continued scientific research that we
> discovered that the original research was flawed. This is a wonderful
> example of the self-correcting nature of scientific work, not a reason
> to be skeptical of scientific research!
Joanna's argument would lead us to sneer at physics because Newton failed to develop general relativity. And it is not just science in the narrow sense that grows _only_ through error and the correction of error (and correction depends on _first_ practicing on the basis of assuming as true what later turns out to be false). All human knowledge ultimately grows out of human practice, and human practice is honey-combed with error. It is no objection whatever to modern medicine to list the errors that are made. Joanna hates Plato, but her argument here is grounded in a Platonic concept of knowledge. Plato claimed that a mathematician wasn't a mathematician when he was committing an error. Joanna claims that physicians aren't physicians when they are committing an error.
Carrol
>
> Miles
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk