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Encouraging professional scepticism in medical practice
Author(s) -
Feragen Anne Rose R
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of evaluation in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.737
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2753
pISSN - 1356-1294
DOI - 10.1111/jep.12581
Subject(s) - underdetermination , skepticism , meaning (existential) , audit , epistemology , set (abstract data type) , medical practice , medicine , psychology , philosophy , medical education , computer science , philosophy of science , management , economics , programming language
Complex cases constitute a considerable part of what medical practitioners have to deal with. In this paper, I refer specifically to instances that are complex as they are related to the profound epistemological problem of underdetermination. The underdetermination thesis states that theories are underdetermined by data, meaning that any set of data is logically compatible with different scientific theories. For the medical practitioners, this means that there is a risk that the analysis they give or the judgments they make might be incorrect. As being incorrect might lead to patients experiencing additional, more intense or prolonged suffering, it is very important that uncertainty is dealt with in a professional way. The ancient scepticism proposed by Sextus Empiricus and the professional scepticism in auditing of today both offer systematic approaches to what is uncertain that might work also in a medical setting.