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How does the discovery that one culture's beliefs about medicine were less accurate than expected, make you think that a different culture's beliefs are more ac
by Rangi42 11y ago
How does the discovery that one culture's beliefs about medicine were less accurate than expected, make you think that a different culture's beliefs are more accurate? It's not like eastern and western medicine are binary opposites, where if one is wrong the other must be right. Especially since this inaccuracy was only discovered through careful dissection and observation: what comparable practices did historical eastern medicine use, that should make it any more accurate than the equivalent old western superstitions? If "western" medicine has missed this detail up until now, I highly doubt that "eastern" medicine somehow accounted for it.
- yanowitz 11y agoI thought the point was that this provides another channel (etiology?) for materialist explanations of "Eastern" medicine. I'm not taking a position on that question, as I haven't studied it sufficiently (though acupuncture, for example, seems more compelling that reiki).
- collyw 11y agoWestern medicine and science is often very dismissive of things that you can't observe and measure. Positive thinking for example. It is well known that negative thinking in the form of stress can have negative physiological effects. Yet there is little research into finding out if positive thinking can have a positive effect. And surprisingly little research into the placebo effect, considering that it can be as effective as prescribed drugs for some situations.