Martin Owen (t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk)
Thu, 9 Sep 1999 13:05:44 +0000
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 13:05:44 +0000 From: Martin Owen <t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Predictability
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>So if I predict that swallowing arsenic will cure my flu, then so long as I
>believe this prediction to be useful, it *is*?
Of course Crispin, That is what has been happening for centuries. we have
been doing stuff because we think it is right: Blood letting, leaching,
taking laudenum, using belladona to make our eyes more beautiful, using
organo-phosphate pesticides, administering anti-biotics for viral diseases
and to fatten pigs, the widespread use of Ritolin in the US, blamming fats
for obesity.. I could go on.
There are plenty of well trained scientists who have been defending tobaco
companies. Culture changes, new "right" and "wrongs" emerge.
>
><<One person's optimism/pessimism is another person's irrationality>>
>
>Optimism/pessimism are characteristics which distort prediction and are
>therefore always irrational. If I go to the doctor I don't want an
>optimistic or pessimistic diagnosis
yes... but the doctor will be working on a belief system. Medicine is one
of the most socially constructed bodies of knowledge we support. It is an
activity were "community beliefs", "divisions of labour", and legislative
rules mediate action more than most. ( 6 years of med school and they still
give you antibiotics for 'flu... this is tantamount to giving you arsenic!).
It is not enough to say that they are mistaken. We define doctorhood and
medicine and give the concepts certain values. We build our world on these
concepts and see "health" as an issue which fits into these concepts.
However health and illness themselves are social contructs and we construct
a system of prediction of the efficacy of actions in relation to these
concepts of health and illness that we have created.
It is easy to give examples of infertility or homosexuality or affective
disorders in children as things that may be "cured" in this paradigm ...
and yet not view them as illness.. but these are too soft
The stuf below was not irected at your comments Crispin... it is from an
earlier part of the debate where some listee appealed to the notion of
Universal truths... "irony" is very hard to use in a list.
><<the Universal "truths" *we are told* (Crispin's emphasis) of in the US
>are autonomy, individual liberty and the persuit of hapiness; whereas in
>many Asian communities *we are told* (Crispin's emphasis) it is family
>responsibility and respect for the elders.>>
I don't think there are any universal truths. I was looking for what some
would think of as universals: like "individual liberty is a good thing".
Martin.
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