Intuition in the Art and Science of Medicine

Abstract

Persons practiced in the medical disciplines often simply see what is wrong with a patient and what ought to be done. They have the right intuition. There is a problem in assessing the significance of such claims. Do such persons simply have a non-inferential knowledge of what is at stake? Or are they so practiced that they, in an unconscious fashion, produce a proper inferential conclusion? Are such intuitions, in fact, simply unconscious inferences open to reconstruction and critical evaluation, so that in the end one would be able through a science of medical decision-making to improve upon their intuitions? What do intuitions have to do with physicians who say they are practiced in the art of medicine? Does being a good artist, rather than just a good scientist, require possessing intuitions? One’s view of the significance of the intuitions of clinicians will have major implications for how one regards the science of medical decision-making as well as the contrast often drawn between the science and the art of medicine.