Scientific Methodologies in Medieval Islam

Abstract

I would like to register my sincerest thanks to Everett Rowson for his willingness to read through and discuss at length Ibn Sînâ's text on induction and experimentation. Also, I have greatly benefited from the comments of Thérèse-Anne Druart concerning both my interpretation of Ibn Sînâ and the philosophical and historical context. Finally, I would like to express my thanks for the comments of the participants of the various conferences where parts of this paper were presented; and the Center for International Studies at The University of Missouri, St. Louis, which made those trips possible. 7This counterexample is already found in Aristotle (Historia Animalium I 11,492b23; III 7,

De Alejandría a Córdoba: la Medicina según Ibn Rushd y la tradición araboislámica

“…40 La práctica, en definitiva, es algo que puede aprenderse como la teoría, 41 y sólo en el caso del aprendizaje de la anatomía se menciona la percepción mediante los sentidos y la disección. 42 Ibn Sīnā nos presenta dos paradojas interesantes conectadas entre sí: como filósofo y científico, es empírico (Mc Ginnis, 2003;Gutas, 2012), pero, como médico, es teórico y reticente a hablar de la práctica (Pormann, 2013;Álvarez Millán, 2010); no cree que la medicina sea una ciencia apodíctica, pero la presenta como ciencia. La explicación de estas paradojas requiere un estudio que excede los límites del presente, pero podemos considerar, entre las hipótesis posibles que explicarían la segunda paradoja, la intención de prestigiar una disciplina que es el oficio que le permite ganarse la vida y acceder a las altas esferas.…”

Induction and Natural Necessity in the Middle Ages

“…He made an important distinction between induction (epagoge; istiqra) and what has been translated as 'methodic experience (empeiria; tajriba). For detailed discussion see McGinnis (2003). 6 All references to the Summa are from (1947).…”

Why and for what are clinical trials the gold standard?

“…If you want to know whether you can reduce a patient’s fever by giving her a particular herb, give feverish patients the herb and record whether their fever is abated or not. This idea was clearly expressed by Avicenna (Abd Allah ibn Sina, c. 980–1037): [It] is like our judgement that the scammony plant is a purgative for bile; for since this [phenomenon] is repeated many times, one abandons that it is among the things which occur by chance, so the mind judged that it belongs to the character of scammony to purge bile and [the mind] gave into it, that is, purging bile is an intrinsic characteristic belonging to scammony [14]. …”

“…[It] is like our judgement that the scammony plant is a purgative for bile; for since this [phenomenon] is repeated many times, one abandons that it is among the things which occur by chance, so the mind judged that it belongs to the character of scammony to purge bile and [the mind] gave into it, that is, purging bile is an intrinsic characteristic belonging to scammony [14].…”