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kind of knowledge that would be acknowledged as the scientific fundamentals of
what is called Experimental Medicine [2].
8.3
Valid Knowledge and Medicine
Positivist science tried to build reliable knowledge models, free from doubt; to de-
velop theories founded on indisputably objective explanations. However, as a con-
sequence to the contributions of epistemologists such as K.R. Popper (1959), and
T.S. Kuhn (1962) positivist principles, which seek to provide science with crite-
ria for truth, objectivity and neutrality, have been questioned. In opposition to the
model proposed by epistemological positivism, another proposal arose defending
the idea that science is knowledge that allows problems to be defined and searches
for solutions to them through conventions in the scientific community using the cri-
teria of validity. In this approach scientific knowledge is that which is valid to be
used to analyse and resolve problems and whose cognitive consequences (theories)
must be inter-subjectively confirmed to establish said validity. As a consequence it
is accepted that:
•
Knowledge is produced by perceiving areas of reality that break with previously
held cognitive expectations; the search for answers to the questions that arise
from this rupture is what stimulates the advance of scientific knowledge.
•
Scientific knowledge is not only focused on developing knowledge, it is also
concerned with answering questions that have social and human interest.
As a consequence of this new model, today science seeks to develop knowledge that
is valid in terms of solving problems and which is not exclusively based on scientific
neutrality and objectivity. Therefore:
•
Valid knowledge is geared toward the comprehension and satisfactory resolution
of problems relevant to society in a specific socio-historic moment.
•
Validity is based on accepting that the knowledge used to resolve problems has
varying degrees of verisimilitude; furthermore, the scientific community ac-
knowledges that not everything is knowable but that there can be agreements
on what is considered valid at a given time.
•
Reality is complex and cannot be understood exclusively through the unavoid-
ably partial processes which analyse data about reality.
•
Factors which may not be taken into consideration in the initial approach to an
issue could be relevant in later analyses of the problem being studied.
•
There is a social component in the development of scientific knowledge that
should not be underestimated when carrying out an epistemological analysis of
that knowledge.
