The Romance of Science and Medicine

The word “science” is polysemic, which is to say that it has a spectrum of meanings to speaker or listener and writer or reader, whether scientist or layperson. Thus, the semantic domain of “science” encompasses many concepts that are selectively shared by many.

The scientist is believed to have attributes such as dedication to truth seeking, to revealing reality through observation, experimentation, and analysis. Methods and results deemed publishable by one’s peers must have the qualities of reliability and replicability. The accoutrements of science are imbued with symbolic value: the white coat (in the laboratory or the medical clinic), the various tools and equipment for measurement, and the legendary, long training periods (pushing the acolyte to the limits), which presumably exorcise all other possible emotional attachments that might impede perfect outcomes.

Because of these attributes, science is considered a calling somehow different from other disciplines. It should be, it is thought by some, less vulnerable to lay criticism, less accountable, beyond attack. It is seen (particularly by its practitioners) as a selfcorrecting discipline, on auto-pilot toward total revelation of all we could ever want to know and understand.