[Buddha-l] Medicine, Efficient Cause and Philosophy

[Katherine Masis]

Joy Vriens wrote:

"The same is true for the medical science,
particularly intolerant in France towards any
alternative forms of medicine and healing."

I’ve never lived in France myself, but I do see a
French homeopath here in Costa Rica who also happens
to be a regular M.D.  The French school of homeopathy
is quite strong in the world and has had enormous
influence on Latin American homeopathy.  She has
reported that homeopathy is pretty well accepted in
France, and that most people know what one is talking
about when one mentions the word "homeopathy."  Not so
in the U.S.  In the nine years I lived there, most
folks I ran into had never even heard of it—quite a
change from the early 20th century.  Although I did
find excellent homeopaths in the two states I lived
in, it was a bit of a search to find them.  I've never
lived in India, but I understand that homeopathy is
quite strong in India, too.  In fact, some of the
homeopathy books I own are Indian re-prints of old
turn-of-the-twentieth century U.S. homeopathy
textbooks!

Dan Lusthaus wrote:

"In addition, I am intrigued by the role medicine --
in the form of Medical causal thinking -- has played
in the history of philosophy."

You might be interested in medical historian Harris
Coulter’s *Divided Legacy: A History of the Schism in
Medical Thought* 3 Vols. (Berkeley, North Atlantic,
1988).  

Vol. 1: The Patterns Emerge. Hippocrates to
Paracelsus.
Vol. 2: The Origins of Western Medicine. J.B. Van
Helmont to Claude Benard.
Vol. 3: The Conflict between Homeopathy and the
American Medical Association.

Coulter is an advocate for homeopathy.  He sees two
distinct lines emerging in Western thought as far back
as the *Corpus Hippocraticum* itself: (a) an empirical
line that tends to treat the whole organism, ignore
efficient cause and follow the *similia similibus
curentur* principle and (b) a causal line that leans
toward localized treatment, find causal agents of
disease and follow the *contraria contrariis*
principle.  Coulter does a great job of pointing out
the mutual influences between medicine and philosophy.
 So it’s the age-old battle of "earthies" versus
"airies."  

Coulter unfortunately says that causal explanation is
irrelevant and has no place in homeopathy, and that
successful clinical trials should be sufficient to
afford homeopathy the respectability it deserves. 
Several contemporary homeopaths disagree with Coulter
and favor the mammoth task of finding The Mechanism
which could explain *why* homeopathy does, in fact,
work.  Once that is accomplished, they contend,
homeopathy would be mainstreamed quite easily.  

Katherine Masis



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