Abstract
A statement is true when it corresponds with the way the world really is. This is the common meaning of truth that we all know.
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- 1.
Readers interested in the reach of postmodernism into science are recommended to start with Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals’ Abuse of Science (Sokal and Bricmont 1999), a landmark book based on an exposé of the gullibility of postmodern academics in accepting nonsensical ideas.
- 2.
Montagnier was joint winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for the discovery of the HIV virus. Thereafter, he appears to have contracted the ‘Nobel disease’, in which success apparently goes to the head of the erstwhile respected scientist, resulting in an embarrassing public embrace of crankery. In addition to his views supporting the ‘memory of water’ concept, Montagnier has embraced ‘DNA teleportation’, an alleged means by which supposed ‘electromagnetic signals’ from a DNA sequence can be transmitted to pure water as a ‘quantum imprint’ such that the water contains the genetic information even though no DNA is present. (The influence of the homeopathic ‘memory of water’ concept is obvious here.) Apparently, these signals can even be recorded and sent as digital files via email. Prowess in one scientific field does not necessarily qualify one for success in another, and the failure to recognise this reality, coupled with a large dose of overconfidence, may help explain why several other prominent scientists, in addition to Montagnier, after receiving the Nobel prize went on to endorse crackpot ideas, ranging from AIDS denial to alien abduction, and creationism to CAM.
- 3.
Proposals for ‘mixed method’ CAM research are often accompanied with the justification that the use of several methods is non-reductionist in nature; i.e. several levels of phenomena are involved. However, as discussed above, the reality is that scientific medicine already depends on a mixture of rigorous methods (including laboratory experiments and RTCs) in order to establish the effectiveness of a therapy. Thus, the charge of ‘reductionism’ (as a pejorative) simply does not stick.
- 4.
While in principle ultra-diluted homeopathic medicines cannot cause biological effects in patients, in practice this is dependent upon the product being free from contaminants. In most jurisdictions, CAM medicines are not subject to the strict regulations on manufacturing that apply to conventional pharmaceutical medicines. In the case of homeopathic medicines, the diluent (water or alcohol) could be impure, or if in tablet form the base material could be contaminated. CAM preparations on the market are not routinely tested for contaminants, and only a limited amount of research has been conducted into this issue; but the available results show that it would be dangerous to assume that CAM products such as homeopathic remedies are free from toxic contaminants. For example, one investigation discovered contamination levels above recommended daily maxima for aluminium, arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead in various CAM medicines (Genuis et al. 2012).
- 5.
For a trenchant account of all that is allegedly wrong with the drugs industry, see the book ‘Bad Pharma’ (Goldacre 2013).
- 6.
This does depend on the patient being aware that they have been ‘treated’, and for some therapies this is not necessarily the case. Intercessory prayer at a distance (covered previously), if used without the patients knowing they are being prayed for, is one such example.
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Ernst, E., Smith, K. (2018). Truth. In: More Harm than Good?. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69941-7_6
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