title: Believing in order to understand: Hahnemann's hierarchisation of values.
abstract: During the last 200 years, the social, scientific, and religious framework in which homeopathy is taught and practiced has changed tremendously. Various different forms of homeopathy have been advocated. To avoid being misled by the prevailing pluralism as a standard of reference for assessing new concepts, Hahnemann's original ideas and attitude toward medicine, philosophy, and ethics are discussed. Hahnemann's hierarchisation of values appears to consist primarily in striving for a world view in which he could conceive of himself as a spiritual and moral being, secondly in a yearning for scientific advancement, and thirdly in his need to earn a living. Homeopaths are challenged to match this hierarchisation and be aware that homeopathy comprises dimensions other than just science and economics.
authors.affiliation: Department of the History of Medicine, University of Munich, Germany. j.m.schmidt@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D005858:Germany; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006705:Homeopathy / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D008374:Manuscripts, Medical as Topic / Q000266:history; D008419:Materia Medica; D010603:Pharmacopoeias, Homeopathic as Topic / Q000266:history*; D010686:Philosophy, Medical / Q000266:history*; D029181:Spirituality
chemical_list: D008419:Materia Medica