Do we need theory to study disease? Lessons from cancer research and their implications for mental illness

Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
Harold Kincaid

Abstract

This article applies general ideas from contemporary philosophy of science--chief among them that much good science proceeds without theories and laws--to the science of medicine. I claim that traditional philosophical debates over the nature of disease make demands on medicine that are mistaken. I demonstrate this philosophical error by applying the perspective of the philosophy of science to understanding the nature of disease in two concrete cases, cancer and depression. I first argue that cancer research produces various kinds of piecemeal causal explanation and does so without any well-developed theory of normal and malignant functioning, despite the rhetoric of some leading cancer researchers. I then defuse doubts about the scientific status of psychiatry, by demonstrating that it is not necessary to have a theory of normal functioning in order to understand and treat depression.

Citations

Apr 16, 2013·Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences·Anya Plutynski
Aug 19, 2011·Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice·Leen De Vreese
Sep 2, 2017·The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy·Peter H Schwartz
Sep 23, 2014·Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy·Gunnar De Winter
Sep 2, 2017·The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy·Leen De Vreese
Mar 21, 2020·Biogerontology·Jonathan Sholl
Mar 27, 2021·History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences·Jonathan Sholl
Aug 31, 2021·Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy·M Cristina Amoretti, Elisabetta Lalumera

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