History of Medicine

History

An Open Access Journal

Anamnesis morbi or anamnesis tubi? On the issue of the methods and methodology of the history of medicine research

DOI: 10.17720/2409-5834.v4.2.2017.02b

Dmitry A. Balalykin
FSAEI HE I.M. Sechenov First MSMU MOH Russia (Sechenov University)
8 Trubetskaya St., building 2, Moscow 119991, Russia

The methodology of the history of medicine forms the foundations of historical knowledge and helps develop a substantiated system of historical ideas to explain the circumstances surrounding the origin, formation and development of fundamental and clinical disciplines. The history of any medical field (including medical specialties) can be examined from two viewpoints: as a reconstruction of the development of disease treatment methods, implying the understanding of the evolution of the ideas of their etiology and pathogenesis, or as a chronicle of technical manipulations that is determined by procedures and priorities. In the opinion of the author of the article, it is methodologically correct to concentrate on the history of approaches to curing the various diseases and disease groups and not on the history of the specific therapeutic or diagnostic methods. Historians must aspire to identify the rules of the ontology of the development of the various fields in clinical medicine.
The formulation of the problem of the methodology of historical knowledge anticipates a conclusion made from scientific discussions on an interdisciplinary and even a meta-disciplinary level. The principal idea is that every science, by turning to a particular object in its search for information, in accordance with its research object could base the reliability of the data obtained on other criteria. Such a situation offers the possibility of dialogue between sciences according to the principle of complementarity, which would help reach a new level of understanding of the integrity of the research object and the limits of the accuracy of knowledge. The medical historian needs special medical knowledge to understand the essence of the phenomena he is studying and for historical reconstruction he needs to know the methods of historical science and the relevant humanitarian disciplines.

Keywords: history of medicine, philosophy and history of science, methodology, interdisciplinary research, endoscopic surgery of the abdominal organs

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