1.1.1 Reasoned Analysis and Empirical Claims
Reasoned Analysis
Question at Issue:
Is homeopathy a reliable alternative medical practice?
Evidence and Information:
- Analysis of how established medical practices work
- The different types of homeopathic treatments
- Knowing what constitutes an effective medicine
- Information about how the placebo effect impacts homeopathic studies
- Distinction between homeopathy and other types of alternative or experimental medicine
- Details on the safety of homeopathy
Assumptions:
- That homeopathic practices have the capability of having documented, scientific results
- That the placebo effect often impacts results of homeopathic studies
Concepts:
- Medical treatments
- Medical conditions
- Law of Similars and Law of Minimum Dose
- Placebo
- Effectiveness
- Homeopathic practices
Context:
- Parallel practices of homeopathy and standard medicine over the past 200 years
Point of View:
- Homeopaths
- Scientists
- Medical professionals
Purpose:
- To discern whether homeopathic treatments are a safe, effective, and legitimate medical practice
Implications and Consequences:
- Our findings on whether homeopathy is reliable or not could consequently result in the difference between life and death if homeopathy is found to be harmful to one’s health
Conclusions and Interpretations:
Homeopathy has little clinical evidence and is possibly dangerous.
Disciplinary Lenses
Botany
Question at Issue:
How can plants be used in medicine?
Evidence and Information:
- Past studies
- Data analysis
- Experiments
Assumptions:
- Plants have medicinal properties
- Plants can be accurately studied
Concepts:
- Plants
- Ecology
- Herbalism
Context:
- Geographical
- Biological
- Phytological
- Medical
Point of View:
- Botanists
- Doctors
- Patients
- Homeopaths
Purpose:
- Discovering effective ways to use plants for medicine
- Attaining knowledge of plants
Implications and Consequences:
- If plants have healing qualities then homeopathy has the potential to have healing qualities
- If proven effective, homeopathy could increase the use of diluted plants in medicinal practices
Conclusions and Interpretations:
Plants can be observed, tested, and accurately assessed for their usefulness in the medical field
Chemistry
Question at Issue:
How is chemistry used to generate active ingredients in medicine?
Evidence and Information:
- Written research
- Lab reports
- Experiments
Assumptions:
- When two elements are combined, a new product is formed.
- The field of Chemistry is forever growing and changing, but the extent of its current knowledge is well-tested.
Concepts:
- Chemicals
- Cellular reactions
- Equilibrium
- Elements
- Active ingredients
- Inactive ingredients
- Dilution
Context:
- Scientific
- Medical
- Biochemical
Point of View:
- Chemists
- Patients
- Doctors
- Homeopaths
Purpose:
- To avoid creating harmful substances
- To understand how elements react with one another
- To understand what constitutes an active ingredient in medicine
Implications and Consequences:
- Chemistry can either support or refute claims of alternative medicines, specifically homeopathic treatments
Conclusions and Interpretations:
Chemistry can determine whether homeopathy is a legitimate medical practice or a pseudoscience
Biology
Question at Issue:
How do homeopathic treatments affect human biology?
Evidence and Information:
- Lab results
- Clinical trials
- Controlled observations
- Documented biological research up until this point
Assumptions:
- People’s natural biological makeup can be impacted by the botanical elements used in homeopathic remedies
- Patients can experience positive results from homeopathic remedies
- The human body can heal itself
- We can assert why a substance causes a certain response
Concepts:
- Cells
- Hormones
- The body and its processes
Context:
- Scientific
- Medical
- Historical
Point of View:
- Biologists
- Doctors
- Patients
- Homeopaths
Purpose:
- To analyze how the body naturally fights sickness
- Examine how types of homeopathic remedies can be used in order to heal an ailment
- Determine how homeopathic treatments could treat a person on a biological level
Implications and Consequences:
- Biology can determine how different treatments affect different patients and if a certain treatment is effective
Conclusions and Interpretations:
Biology can help determine whether or not homeopathic treatment has any actual effects on patients.
Pharmacology
Question at Issue:
How do pharmaceutical treatments compare with homeopathic treatments?
Evidence and Information:
- Lab reports
- Clinical trials
- Experiments
- Documented long-term outcomes of pharmaceutical treatments
Assumptions:
- Research that has led to the current knowledge in the field of pharmacology accurately portrays the medicinal effects and applications of certain substances
Concepts:
- Medicine
- Natural remedies
- Diagnosis
- Vaccines
- Side effects
- Active ingredients
Context:
- Historical
- Medical
Point of View:
- Doctors
- Pharmacists
- Patients
- Homeopaths
Purpose:
- To explain whether or not homeopathic treatments are considered medicine and why
Implications and Consequences:
- Identifying a homeopathic product as medicine instead of an ineffective supplement could be dangerous to the consumer
- Because homeopathic treatments tend to be cheaper, if they prove to be just as effective as pharmaceutical medicine, there could be a decline in the consumption of pharmaceutical products
Conclusions and Interpretations:
The study of pharmacology can describe the effectiveness of homeopathic products and determine their efficacy as a medical treatment
Psychology
Question at Issue: What role does psychology play in homeopathy?
Evidence and Information:
- Peer-reviewed research on the placebo effect
- Studies of long-term effects of placebo on patients
- Studies of psychosomatic effects of placebo
Assumptions:
- Psychology can explain why people believe that homeopathy is effective
- We can accurately determine the positive and negative effects of the placebo effect on people’s attitudes about their health
Concepts:
- Placebo
- Autonomy
- Manipulation
- Persuasion
Context:
- Behavioral
- Historical
Point of View:
- Psychologists
- Patients
- Homeopaths
- Medical doctors
Purpose:
- To describe how behavioral tendencies may influence belief in homeopathic practices
- To uncover how the placebo effect may be influencing patients’ beliefs of homeopathic treatments’ “effectiveness”
Implications and Consequences:
- Evidence may show that homeopathy’s success is derived from its fundamental basis in manipulation and the placebo effect
Conclusions and Interpretations:
Psychology shows that collectively, individuals who engage in homeopathic ideas have similar behaviors and attitudes about their health
Empirical Claims
Inductive Reasoning
True Premise 1: Homeopathy utilizes the law of infinitesimals.
True Premise 2: “Many homeopathic products are so diluted that no molecules of the original substance remain” (Smith, 2012).
Weak Inductive Reasoning: Regardless of whether or not the substance claimed as medicine is present, as long as patients find success in homeopathy (via the placebo effect), the treatment is still legitimate.
Logical Conclusion: Homeopathy cannot be considered a legitimate medical practice because the substances claimed as medicine are not even present in the solutions sold.
Deductive Reasoning
True Premise 1: Homeopathy’s substance’s dilution is so high as to make the ‘medicinal’ aspect of the solution non-existent.
True Premise 2: Pharmacology shows that physiological responses to medicine are dose-dependent.
Weak Deductive Reasoning: Since there is technically some amount of the substance still present in the solution, any documented results (according to the law of minimum dose) can be attributed to the presence of that substance, however small.
Logical Conclusion: Homeopathy can have no physiological effect on its users.
Abductive Reasoning
Observation: Hahnemann’s experiment in the early 19th century on himself: “In an attempt to discover why quinine relieves the symptoms of malaria, he took some cinchona bark (the source of quinine) and developed a fever and other symptoms common to malaria” (Smith, 2012).
Weak Explanation: “From this experience, he concluded that a substance that produces particular symptoms in healthy individuals can be effective against a disease that has the same symptoms” (Smith, 2012).
Best Prediction: “The ‘provings’ of Hahnemann et al. were conducted in the early 19th century, an era in which the fundamental principles of clinical trials […] had not been established. Thus, the observations that form the basis of current homeopathic practice were not conducted in a reliable fashion” (Smith, 2012).
Logical Fallacies
Genetic Fallacy
Homeopathy supporters like to reference the fact that this alternative medicine has been around since the late 18th century and that the basic principles have not altered over that period.
The Bandwagon Appeal
In recent years, social media has played a big part in convincing people to replace mainstream medicine with alternative medicines such as homeopathy.
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
The idea that recovery after taking a homeopathic substance indicates that it was due to the homeopathic treatment that the person recovered. This is not necessarily true due to other factors such as the placebo effect and the fact that most patients will approach a doctor when their symptoms are at their peak (which is when the symptoms tend to start decreasing).
Non Sequitur
We see this present in the reasoning of the law of similars and the law of infinitesimals, which are both invalid bases for anything scientific.
Cherry-Picking
“Hahnemann derived [the law of similars] from a single observation involving himself” (Smith, 2012).
“… many clinical trials of homeopathy are rendered invalid by serious flaws, such as low subject numbers, poor design and slipshod execution” (Smith, 2012).
Ad Hoc
“Some modern homeopaths deal with this epistemic problem by employing the ad hoc notion that the water used for dilution retains a ‘molecular memory’ of the original substance” (Smith, 2012).