Milgrom and Homeopathy

[Bronze Dog]

The greatest single thought-crime that homeopathic advocates are guilty of perpetrating is the post-hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. Just because something happens after something else they conclude that the latter must be caused by the former.

I remember someone mentioning a dog of theirs who barked at thunderstorms until they went away. Maybe we should turn that into an obscure JREF meme:

Still barking at that thunderstorm, huh?

 

[Mojo]

I have to deal with unqualified people all the time and try to explain medical realities to them. I have never yet anyone who cannot comprehend that just because a patient improves on medication it may be coincidence.

It's not just unqualified people though!

A couple of years ago my left knee suddenly became very painful. I went along to the doctor's, he diagnosed a return of the gout symptoms I had had in my big toes the previous year, prescribed me some painkillers and anti-inflammatories, and told me to come back on the following Monday (this was on the Friday). By the time I saw him again on the Monday the symptoms had subsided. "There," he said, "those pills I gave you worked," or words to that effect.

 

[NoZed Avenger]

I'm not trying to convince you of anything[.]

In that case, you're doing a splendid job.

 

[Belz...]

I have no idea how or why it works. However, since I know for absolute fact that it DOES work, if the right remedy is chosen, I don't fret about those details.

Just because you think you know something does not entail that it exists.

Belz...

 

[athon]

I've been thinking about this a little.

I have to deal with unqualified people all the time and try to explain medical realities to them. I have never yet anyone who cannot comprehend that just because a patient improves on medication it may be coincidence. The greatest single thought-crime that homeopathic advocates are guilty of perpetrating is the post-hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. Just because something happens after something else they conclude that the latter must be caused by the former.

In the real world, this degree of irrationality seems to be quite a rare disability. All I can assume is that its fellow-sufferers all congregate around woo-medicine sites, which is where we find them.

I just find it bizarre that a concept so simple a 5 year old can understand it seems to go ver their heads.

I used to agree, but it all makes sense when you remove your own thinking from the equation and look at humans as you would any other animals species.

Human thinking is pattern based. The 'before this therefore it caused this' fallacy (which 90% of superstition is based on) is so hard wired into our way of thinking, it is nearly impossible to overide without the will to do so. We have understood why it can fail, and how to recognize the limitations of this methodology. But it is not a natural thing for our brains to do.

This fallacy is so ingrained, it is not only sociological, it is biological. It is the foundation of our way of thinking. So of course it will seem for most people that any other way of thinking would be absurd.

Athon