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This reminds me of a quote from Mark Cuban: “Unless you have a reliable, duplicatable, scalable and consistent way to bring potential customers in, you don’t ha
by baxtr 6y ago
This reminds me of a quote from Mark Cuban: “Unless you have a reliable, duplicatable, scalable and consistent way to bring potential customers in, you don’t have a business. You have a hobby!”
I think it’s very similar in science. It’s difficult to argue that this is science because it seems impossible to design a repeatable experiment which yields the same outcome every time.
- marcan_42 6y agoWelcome to psychology. Turns out, it's unethical to design "repeatable experiments" when it comes to the human existence, which is why we have to make do with less rigorous forms of science. That doesn't mean it isn't science, it just means it's harder to draw solid conclusions than "just run a repeatable experiment".
- tsimionescu 6y agoIf you were right, science would be limited to designed experiments. The scope of science is broader, and collecting information about rare cases and studying them, even when they can't be predicted ahead of time or artificially induced, is absolutely a part of science. By the logic you stated, seismology or volcanology would not be real sciences either, as earthquakes and volcanic erruptions can't be repeated with the same outcome each time. Now, the article does seem to light on clinical details, and has a few personal flourishes that detract a lot from its use as a basis for a future study of similar cases, so I don't disagree that it's not really a scientific article, but the reasons are more nuanced. Well-written case studies are absolutely a valid scientific tool. This one reads more like an anecdote than a case study, though.
- pygy_ 6y agoScience is the process that makes our cultural representations of the world match the world as it can be observed and measured. Provided the author is otherwise trusted, even anecdotes add to the scientific corpus. "Hey, I saw this" is IMO valid science, even if a more thorough examination would have been better.
- jrochkind1 6y agoThe practice of medicine involves sharing case studies. This is a case study. It's true that medical knowledge is not produced solely through an idealized version of the scientific method. What would a medical practicioner be expected to take from this case study? I don't think it's that "psychic phenomena are real", really. In addition to just an entertaining story , perhaps "don't be so quick to dismiss what apparently mentally ill people are saying, pay attention to them and respect them as people."
- arkades 6y agoCase studies aren't science, and aren't meant to be. They're clinical medicine. They (not necessarily all applying to this one) illustrate that: (A) This fucking cool thing happened. (B) This weird presentation (or lab finding, or imaging) turned out to be, we're pretty sure, X. (C) This weird presentation or case was successfully concluded with treatment X, with the caveat that, you know, we can't prove it was the treatment that did it. When other docs are searching for "wtf is this weird presentation?", finding a case that shares other clinicians' reasoning and a possible diagnosis for that weird presentation is super helpful. Some things are too rare for your immediate colleagues to have much insight. Case studies are professionals kibbitzing with one another, not science. They may give rise to science, as when an unconventional but logically sound therapy appears to have worked and prompts someone to test it in a proper trial.