Acupuncture, Incommensurability, and Conceptual Change
| Abstract | This paper is an investigation of the degree of incommensurability between Western scientific medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, focusing on the practice and theory of acupuncture. We describe the structure of traditional Chinese medicine, oriented around such concepts as yin, yang, qi, and xing, and discuss how the conceptual and explanatory differences between Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine generate impediments to their comparison and evaluation. We argue that the linguistic, conceptual, ontological, and explanatory impediments can to a large extent be overcome, and conclude that the dramatic differences between Western and traditional Chinese medicine do not provide insurmountable barriers to rational evaluation of acupuncture. We conclude with a discussion of the intentional and emotional aspects of conceptual change | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,631 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Only published papers are available at libraries |
Similar books and articlesDouglas Allchin (1996). Points East and West: Acupuncture and Comparative Philosophy of Science. Philosophy of Science 63 (3):115.
Anton Jayasuriya (1983). Tao of Acupuncture: The Philosophical and Ethical Basis of Traditional Chinese Healing. Institute of Acupuncture & Lasertherapy, Colombo South General Hospital.
John Hamwee (2012). Acupuncture for New Practitioners. Singing Dragon.
Peter Barker (2001). Kuhn, Incommensurability, and Cognitive Science. Perspectives on Science 9 (4):433-462.
Ren-Zong Qiu (1988). Medicine – the Art of Humaneness: On Ethics of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 13 (3):277-299.
Ingo Brigandt (2006). A Theory of Conceptual Advance: Explaining Conceptual Change in Evolutionary, Molecular, and Evolutionary Developmental Biology. Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh
Philip Kitcher (1982). Implications of Incommensurability. PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1982:689 - 703.
Peter Gärdenfors & Frank Zenker (2013). Theory Change as Dimensional Change: Conceptual Spaces Applied to the Dynamics of Empirical Theories. Synthese 190 (6):1039-1058.
Song Tian (2011). A Study of Experiential Technology and Scientific Technology, Exemplified by Chinese and Western Medicine. Frontiers of Philosophy in China 6 (2):298-315.
Deborah Woo (1991). China's Importation of Western Psychiatry: Cultural Relativity and Mental Disorders. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 12 (1).
Muhammad Ali Khalidi (1998). Incommensurability in Cognitive Guise. Philosophical Psychology 11 (1):29 – 43.
Ruiping Fan (2003). Modern Western Science as a Standard for Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Critical Appraisal. Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 31 (2):213-221.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2010-12-22Total downloads21 ( #58,633 of 548,969 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,511 of 548,969 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
