Against Scientism: Corrupted Science and the Fight for Medicine’s Soul

Abstract

This article maintains that via the current form of evidence-based medicine, scientism (a pseudo-religious belief in science that is itself not scientific) has been allowed to encroach into medicine. By setting out the philosophical limits of what it is science can do, the effects of this encroachment are discussed in terms of upsetting the balance between the <i>necessarily conflicting</i> art AND science of medicine. In this context, one effect of the Covid-19 pandemic might be to act as a timely reminder – as if it was needed – of the importance of the Hippocratic Oath, which is and always has been the soul of medicine.