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Points East and West: Acupuncture and Comparative Philosophy of Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Douglas Allchin
Douglas Allchin*
Affiliation:
University of Texas at El Paso
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Abstract

Acupuncture, the traditional Chinese practice of needling to alleviate pain, offers a striking case where scientific accounts in two cultures, East and West, diverge sharply. Yet the Chinese comfortably embrace the apparent ontological incommensurability. Their pragmatic posture resonates with the New Experimentalism in the West—but with some provocative differences. The development of acupuncture in China (and not in the West) further suggests general research strategies in the context of discovery. My analysis also exemplifies how one might fruitfully pursue a comparative philosophy of science that explores how other cultures investigate and validate their conclusions about the natural world.

Information

Type
Methodology Naturalized and Contextualized
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 63 , Issue S3: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1996 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers Sep., 1996. , 1996 , pp. S107 - S115
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1996

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Footnotes

†

My deep appreciation to David Hall for his encouragement and uncompromising criticism.

‡

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968.

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