The Mode of Medical Inference in the History of Medicine

Lee, Tae Jun

Abstract

In the primitive ages the system of thought about health and disease was a closed system of thought which had the premise of witchcraft. In the ancient and middle ages the problems of health and disease had been dealt with within logical thinking but the phenomena of human life had been explained metaphysically and the medical problems had been inferred from deductive logic. The abnormalities of health problems which were inferred from deductive logic had not been substantiated because anatomy, physiology and technology had not been advanced far enough. In the Renaissance and modern ages the knowledge of anatomy, physiology and pathology of living body have begun to increase. The human body could be explained in the terms of structure and function of the body as a machine. Approaching this way the disease has been understood as the abnormality of structure or function of the body and the problems of health and disease are inferred from inductive logic. Recently patterns of health disorders have changed. Such health disorders that can not be found to have evidences of structural or functional abnormalities have increased. Practitioners have tended to find evidences of structural or functional abnormality of the body by using medical equipments. This way of medical practice has led to high cost of medical fees, dehumanizing health care and have produced public dissatisfaction. The form of problem-oriented medical record is recommended as the best tool for training reasonable medical inferences.