Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
4
Specificities and Vagaries of Medicine
from the Viewpoint of Hard Sciences
Settimo Termini and Marco Elio Tabacchi
4.1
Introduction
The thought-provoking and encyclopedic
Handbook of Analytic Philosophy of
Medicine
by Kazem Sadegh-Zadeh[3] poses many challenging questions of differ-
ent types and nature. Even after just a quick skimming of the topic, the reader will
find himself entangled in a very long list of questions to be answered, of curiosi-
ties to be satisfied, and of problems to be further dissected and analyzed. This is a
testimony to the importance of the punctual scrutiny and the general contributions
provided by Sadegh-Zadeh's opus, and at the same time what makes almost impos-
sible to limit the focus of a contribution about the topic to just a small subset of all
these questions and problems.
Another kind of reaction, generated by an overall impression of such a titanic
enterprise so happily completed by the author calls for a move toward a completely
different direction. And indeed there will be a time for deeper and closer looks at
the details, there will be a time for painstakingly analyzing the structure and deeply
searching a synthesis, a time for the criticism and a time for the replies, and yet
a time for a hundred indecisions, and for a hundred visions and revisions, before
finally arriving at some conclusive stage and more solid conclusions about such a
hot topic, if a reference points and conclusive arguments do exist at all.
In our opinion, the best way of honoring the author in the immediate proximity
of the topic publication is briefly dealing with a number of very general remarks,
independently of how and if the topic has provided answers to them - and even if
apparently it has not generally dealt with. An herculean task indeed, as the author
has meticulously left no medical stone unturned in his quest for a rigorous, in-depth
and exhaustive scrutiny of the topic.
4.2
Medicine as a Peculiar Science
The Italian linguist Tullio DeMauro - who comes from a family of physicians - in
his book
La cultura degli Italiani
[2], reports the following episode:
