The Problem of Medical Knowledge. Examining the Social Construction of Medicine

THIS is a sociological and not a medical book. It would be well to define and describe "The Problem of Medical Knowledge" before discussing whether social forces have effects on its formation. Certainly religion, morals, ethics and the law have their effect on the practice of medicine but that is not the subject of this book. Here the difficulties of medical knowledge are not perceived nor described. Nor is the book always sure what is medicine. What drug companies do, what some ancillary workers do, is not medicine. Further, the writers of these essays err in thinking medicine is a science. It makes use of science, as it makes use of all kinds of knowledge, so far as they are relevant and useful to it, and so far as it can understand them. Medicine is in truth a management (or an art as it used to be said). It is only a science if by that is meant the pursuit of the truth and accurate working by precise observation and critical logical thinking. But that is not what the essayists mean by science.