title: "Personal Knowledge" in Medicine and the Epistemic Shortcomings of Scientism.
abstract: In this paper, we outline a framework for understanding the different kinds of knowledge required for medical practice and use this framework to show how scientism undermines aspects of this knowledge. The framework is based on Michael Polanyi's claim that knowledge is primarily the product of the contemplations and convictions of persons and yet at the same time carries a sense of universality because it grasps at reality. Building on Polanyi's ideas, we propose that knowledge can be described along two intersecting "dimensions": the tacit-explicit and the particular-general. These dimensions supersede the familiar "objective-subjective" dichotomy, as they more accurately describe the relationship between medical science and medical practice. Scientism, we argue, excludes tacit and particular knowledge and thereby distorts "clinical reality" and impairs medical practice and medical ethics.
authors.affiliation: Bioethics Centre, University of Otago, 71 Frederick St, Dunedin, New Zealand. hugh.mcq@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Hugh Marshall
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: McHugh
authors.affiliation: Bioethics Centre, University of Otago, 71 Frederick St, Dunedin, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Simon Thomas
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Walker
mesh_terms: D001690:Biological Science Disciplines; D003210:Concept Formation; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008511:Medicine; D010686:Philosophy, Medical
keywords: Evidence-based medicine; Medical knowledge; Philosophy of medicine; Polanyi