Making Medical Knowledge
Miriam Solomon
Reviews and Awards
"...it is erudite, informative, provocative, and repays with interest engagement with its clearly written text and the author's long experience with medical and scientific epistemology. It is a superlative reference for anyone seeking to find out about modern medical epistemology. Philosophers of medicine and science, sociologists, and historians of medicine will find it of particular value." -- Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal
"Miriam Solomon (philosophy, Temple Univ.) has written an excellent work that explores common methods of creating medical knowledge...The book is part history and part philosophy, and though Solomon succeeds in both areas, the philosophical and analytical discussions interspersed throughout really stand out and help readers unpack the complexities of each topic. The book is well researched, with plentiful references and footnotes, but does not read in a stereotypically dry, academic way. On the contrary, the book is a pleasure to read. Each chapter is organized into manageable sections, and the index is thorough. This is a well-written, well-organized, and well-constructed book, certainly worth the investment for those interested in any aspect of medicine...Recommended." -- Choice
"The audiences who stand to gain most from this book are undergraduate students in history or philosophy, and perhaps health care professionals with a keen interest in understanding recent developments in medicine...The book achieves a goal more important than overcoming art versus science, to my mind, in that it demonstrates in very clear terms and through example how short-sighted it is to be a selective dogmatist about methods, since it means giving up on methods that are quite good for specific purposes, while ignoring the ways that the ''chosen'' method falls short. This is a lesson worth learning, relearning, and discussing both within medicine and beyond." -- Metascience
"Making Medical Knowledge is a valuable contribution that carefully untangles important epistemic questions in medicine." -- Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online
"Making Medical Knowledge is well written, and Solomon's review of the philosophical arguments behind the ongoing debate about evaluating health technology is clear and insightful...[a] brilliant book." -- Hastings Center Report
"In this accessible, well-written book, Miriam Solomon reviews four interrelated but largely independent methods of medical knowledge production: the consensus conference, evidence-based medicine, translational medicine, and narrative medicine...Solomon's lucid and expert exploration of these four methods of knowledge production provocative and insightful. This book works as a stand-alone assessment of contemporary medical knowledge and as a stimulus for further research." -- Bulletin of the History of Medicine
"This is an impressive and important book. It is full of useful examples and case studies from medicine that help to make original points. And many of these points seem to me to be correct: in medicine, there is a plurality of methods, and these methods should be judged on their merits rather than by appealing to a hierarchy of methods. Solomon's historical approach to these issues is a productive way to proceed. It furthers the debate about the strengths and weaknesses of the various methods used in medical research and practice by providing a more complete picture of the relationships between these methods. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the epistemology of medicine or philosophy of science more generally. It is also beautifully written, with clear and informative prose, and concise summaries of the conclusions at regular intervals." --British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
