[Buddha-l] Re: Medicine, Efficient Cause and Philosophy

[Katherine Masis]

"Katherine,
I'm not sure how far we can go on a buddhism
discussion list delving into
Bergson, Descartes, ancient Greek theorists, etc."

*** That’s why I asked, in my P.S., if we should go
off-list.

"One should, I suspect, be most suspicious of those
approaches that claim to have the solution for
everything."

*** A few dogmatic homeopaths aside, the broader
international community of homeopaths certainly does
not make this claim.

"I'm not sure what you think efficient causality
means,"

*** As I said quite plainly in my post, I said
efficient cause in the Aristotelian sense, as a
principle of change.  (If you wish, we can start a new
thread on causality, change and substance in Aristotle
sometime in the near future.)  

"If homeopathy lacks efficient causality, then that is
an admission that it doesn't work. I don't thnk that
is what you want to claim."

*** Of course not.  I don’t have the habit of claiming
what I don’t say in the first place.  If you read my
previous posts, you’ll notice that I said that aside
from accumulating empirical clinical success, there
remains the mammoth task of mainstreaming homeopathy
via finding a causal mechanism that can explain why it
works.

"Efficient causality does not require mechanistic
models."

*** It might not.  But after the Scientific
Revolution, they sure come in handy if one wants to be
mainstreamed in the scientific community.

"Mechanistic thinking is not an evil, especially when
applied to medicine."

*** I never even dreamed it would be an evil.  Where
did you think that up?  I will be the first person to
dance a jig when The Mechanism and Causal Explanation
for the workings of homeopathy are found. 

[ Dan’s report on SARS  ]

*** Dan, you don’t have to convince me of the
blessings of modern western medicine.  I am grateful
for them.  I have regular MD’s in my family and I
respect what they do.  If I have given you to
understand that I am "railing against the medical
establishment," as you put it in your last post, then
we should definitely go off-list so I can clarify my
views further.

Katherine Masis



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