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Medical Explanation

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The Fragility of Philosophy of Medicine

Part of the book series: Philosophy and Medicine ((PHME,volume 147))

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Abstract

Medical explanation may consist in hierarchical research, reduction, supervenience, inference to the best explanation. The degree of inductive liability of an argument is the probability that its conclusion is true, given that its premises are true (the Bayes theorem). Medicine moves form realism to instrumentalism and to praxeology. Traditional Cartesianism is leading to the philosophy of neuroscience. Neo-Darwinism leads to adaptationism and the Panglossian Fallacy.

We have no right to establish any kind of theory... We must discard all explanation and put only description in its place.

Wittgenstein [404]

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  1. DG XII and DG V, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium

    Lucien Karhausen

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Karhausen, L. (2023). Medical Explanation. In: The Fragility of Philosophy of Medicine. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 147. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41633-0_9

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