The Popperian Podcast The Popperian Podcast #25 – Donald Gillies – 'The Philosophy of Medical Discovery'
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Mar 26, 2023 AI Snips
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Semmelweis As A Popperian Example Who Was Rejected
- Gillies uses Semmelweis as a textbook Popperian example: Semmelweis formed hypotheses and refuted alternatives but was ignored because he contradicted the dominant medical paradigm.
- Hempel praised the case but omitted discussing why Semmelweis's results were socially rejected.
Why Penicillin Was Preparation Plus Luck
- Scientific discoveries are not unitary lucky moments; Fleming's penicillin needed prior expertise and later work by Florey and Chain to become an antibiotic.
- Pasteur's dictum 'fortune favors the prepared mind' explains the interplay of chance and preparation.
Probabilistic Causality Replaced Determinism In Medicine
- Modern medicine shifted from deterministic single-cause views to probabilistic, indeterministic causality where causes raise risk rather than guarantee outcomes.
- Popper's propensity interpretation of probability links probabilities to causal propensities, e.g., smoking raises lung cancer propensity.