January 10, 2019 Thursday
Bedtime Story
"Homeopathy and Its Kindred Delusions" (1842) Still Available
The two-part “Homeopathy and Its Kindred
Delusions” that was published in 1842 can be ordered even today from internet and
its contents remain as relevant today as it was when they were first written
down by the author.
The text is not just a critique of
homeopathy but is also a refresher in general on the science of medicine.
For instance he introduces the term “false
positive” which is today an indispensible term in medical statistical analysis
during random double blind control trials for testing efficacy and safety of
any new drug.
Another useful terminology that he explains
in great depth is “anecdotal evidence”.
Anecdotal evidence is a form of “evidence”
that arises out of anecdotal conversations that is commonly seen or heard in routine
daily talks.
Anecdotal evidence includes any observation
that is casual as opposed to scientifically rigorous.
Anecdotal evidence also refers to any
information that is passed by word of mouth and that has no scientific
documentation.
Anecdotal evidence also tends to be such an
“information” that are neither verifiable nor falsifiable.
You would very often come across a group of
ladies wherein there is always one woman emphatically and emotionally
recommending you certain food or herb and emphasizing ferociously and even
sincerely “I have myself seen this work on my aunt’s daughter who was cured in
a matter of days”.
This kind of evidence relies upon informal
stories depending heavily on someone’s personal testimony.
To be frank with you my own practice as an
ophthalmologist has evolved on such word-of-mouth publicity that is nothing but
a form of anecdotal evidence wherein I must have been the subject of
conversation.
I can vouch for it that it really works!
I hope you got the joke (the above
statement is also an anecdotal evidence).
It is not surprising that major brands use
famous personalities and stars to testify for their products (in advertising
jargon the term that is used is “endorsement” but in the end they are just paid
testimonials and extremely handsomely paid at that).
Anecdotal evidence is interlinked with
other human fallacies such as cherry picking and confirmation bias.
It is well known that we humans either
consciously or unconsciously are more liable to recall certain events over
others for several reasons and that by default allows the above two biases to
creep in.
You would have noticed that I kept using
the adjective “scientific” and it probably bothers you because most of you
would think that being scientific means indulging in complex statistical
analysis after various observations with as little bias a possible.
It is not necessarily so though of course
when it comes to serious science and its publication those are mandatory.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
Advertisements
Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
No comments:
Post a Comment