IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB000830434

Causal (Mis)understanding and the Search for Scientific Explanations: A Case Study from the History of Medicine (2008)

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Volume: 39
Pages: 14--24

Outside Links

PubMed

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

In 1747, James Lind carried out an experiment which proved the usefulness of citrus fruit as a cure for scurvy. Nonetheless, he rejected the earlier hypothesis of Bachstrom that the absence of fresh fruit and vegetables was the only cause of the disease. I explain why it was rational for James Lind not to accept Bachstrom's explanation. I argue that it was the urge for scientific understanding that guided Lind in his rejection and in the development of his alternative theory that humidity was the primary cause of the disease. Central in this process was the search for causal mechanisms which could provide understanding of how the disease developed and which fitted in with the knowledge of the time. Given that the relevant background knowledge and statistical methods were not yet available to Lind, he was right to prefer his own explanation to that of Bachstrom. Although his explanation turned out to be wrong, and Bachstrom's right, from a historical point of view it offered deeper causal understanding of both the development of the disease and the preventive and curative effects of fresh vegetable food. This case study illustrates how the search for causal mechanisms can not only be enlightening, but also very misleading.

...More

Description On James Lind's interpretation of his 1747 experiment proving that citrus fruit could cure scurvy, and his rejection of an earlier hypothesis of Bachstrom.

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000830434/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Book Pierre-Alain Braillard; Christophe Malaterre; (2015)
Explanation in Biology: An Enquiry into the Diversity of Explanatory Patterns in the Life Sciences (/isis/citation/CBB328513685/)

Article Pilpel, Avital; (2007)
Statistics Is Not Enough: Revisiting Ronald A. Fisher's Critique (1936) of Mendel's Experimental Results (1866) (/isis/citation/CBB000830396/)

Article Harrison, Mark; (2013)
Scurvy on Sea and Land: Political Economy and Natural History, c. 1780--c. 1850 (/isis/citation/CBB001200826/)

Article Schandeler, Jean-Pierre; (2012)
La Langue des Sciences Sociales dans le Tableau historique de Condorcet (/isis/citation/CBB001252123/)

Article Boantza, Victor D.; (2007)
Collecting Airs and Ideas: Priestley's Style of Experimental Reasoning (/isis/citation/CBB000701059/)

Chapter Thurs, Daniel P.; (2011)
Scientific Methods (/isis/citation/CBB001231986/)

Book Magnani, Lorenzo; Nersessian, Nancy J.; (2002)
Model Based Reasoning: Science, Technology, Values (/isis/citation/CBB000201255/)

Article Hsueh Qu; (2016)
Prescription, Description, and Hume's Experimental Method (/isis/citation/CBB423983702/)

Article van den Berg, Hein; (2011)
Kant's Conception of Proper Science (/isis/citation/CBB001211471/)

Article Magnus, P. D.; (2010)
Inductions, Red Herrings, and the Best Explanation for the Mixed Record of Science (/isis/citation/CBB001230043/)

Chapter Carpenter, Kenneth J.; (2002)
Prematurity and Delay in the Prevention of Scurvy (/isis/citation/CBB000202419/)

Thesis Ashley, Raymond Edward; (2001)
Longitude and Scurvy: The Mechanics of Problem Solving in the Age of Sail (/isis/citation/CBB001560585/)

Book Wrigley, Richard; Revill, George; (2000)
Pathologies of Travel (/isis/citation/CBB000110604/)

Article David Teira; (2019)
Placebo trials without mechanisms: How far can they go? (/isis/citation/CBB058338660/)

Chapter Arabatzis, Theodore; (2012)
Hidden Entities and Experimental Practice: Renewing the Dialogue Between History and Philosophy of Science (/isis/citation/CBB001500247/)

Chapter Daston, Lorraine; (2010)
The Empire of Observation, 1600--1800 (/isis/citation/CBB001221449/)

Article Olaf L. Mueller; (2016)
Prismatic Equivalence – A New Case of Underdetermination: Goethe vs. Newton on the Prism Experiments (/isis/citation/CBB847582954/)

Article Pier Remigio Salvi; (2021)
Discovering Oxygen: Experimental Techniques and Logic of a Great Chemist, Carl Wilhelm Scheele (/isis/citation/CBB414666961/)

Article Stahnisch, Frank W.; (2005)
Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on Experimental Practice in Medicine and the Life Sciences (/isis/citation/CBB001033068/)

Article Tripodi, Paolo; (2014)
Conceptual Mediation: Philosophy between the History of Physiology and Contemporary Neuroscience (/isis/citation/CBB001201194/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}