@algancao – On Chinese Medicine Education
@acupunisher “Inner traditions” and many psycho-spiritual approaches seem like practitioner projection and excessive mental gyrations to me.
Sat Jul 11 15:28:01
@bweapons Chinese medicine is based on a different metaphysic than biomedicine, but both evolve through creativity and peer review.
Scientism is the metaphysic that only science can know truth. This leaves out the observer, (s)he who subjectively experiences whatever.
Perhaps Chinese medicine favors subjective “quality of life” over changes in lab data. We spend lots of time trying to prove via lab data.
Greeks said Truth, Good, and Beauty. Science, Ethics, and Subjectivity. CM fits into all three. Science can be beauty, but its not required.
When beauty IS found in science, it is very beautiful. I love electron microscopes and polarized magnified crystal growth.
Chinese herbalism’s sibling is culinary arts, not (drug) pharmacology. That’s one reason the standards of care are so flexible, like cooking.
But Chinese medicine students want an if:then relationship between signs and therapies. Good luck with that. Nothing is cut and dry in CM.
First step to learn Chinese medicine: make peace with ambiguity. That being said, there IS peer review based on theory and history.
Last modified: September 9, 2009 
Tags: Acupuncture, education, Herbs, Theory ยท Posted in: Tweetz
