Will Medicine Find Its Identity in the New Century?Part II: Methodology of Medical Research and Dichotomy of Medicine

Overview

Views on causality in medicine are today deeply influenced by philosophy of T. S. Kuhn (paradigm) and K. R.Popper (falsification of hypotheses). Contemporary epidemiological studies, which show the importance of socialfactors, move scientists in medical research to broaden their traditional positivistic reasoning with the deductiveapproach in the hypothesis formation, with using sociologic methods and to develop sociobiological research. Fromthe point of falsification theory and alteration of scientific revolutions the causal way in the disease etiology in thepermanent seek of the „final“ link in the chain of risk factors. Medicine as a humanistic and social science developeddichotomically and asymmetrically. It is now divided and dysfunctional because it is not able to use fully its internalcapacity to improve health of the whole population. Search for the identity of medicine is permanent and never endinghistorical process.

Key words:
hypothetico-deductive method, hypothesis, causal way, regressus in infinitum, biological reductio-nism, socio-biological translation, objectivity of the scientist, dichotomy and dysfunction in medicine.