The aim of this paper is, on the one hand, to critically investigate Kuhn’s stance on the assessment of the pursuit worthiness of scientific theories, and, on the other hand, to show the actuality of some of Kuhn’s points on this issue, in view of their critical analysis. To this end we show that Kuhn presents certain tools, which may help scientists to overcome communication breakdowns when en...

BACKGROUND During the past few decades, research has reported gender bias in various areas of clinical and academic medicine. To prevent such bias, a gender perspective in medicine has been requested, but difficulties and resistance have been reported from implementation attempts. Our study aimed at analysing this resistance in relation to what is considered good medical research. METHOD We u...

With Huntington’s warning of a “clash of civilizations” following the end of the cold war, “cultural pluralism” has become important for enhancing world peace and supporting development. In this paper, cultural pluralism is viewed as a “knowledge society” problem, where intercultural knowledge is produced, disseminated and used within an ecosystem of mutual understanding and respect. The author...

With Huntington’s warning of a “clash of civilizations” following the end of the cold war, “cultural pluralism” has become important for enhancing world peace and supporting development. In this paper, cultural pluralism is viewed as a “knowledge society” problem, where intercultural knowledge is produced, disseminated and used within an ecosystem of mutual understanding and respect. The author...

Correspondence: Valéry Ridde Unité de santé internationale. 3875 St-Urbain, 5th floor (507); Montréal, QC; H2 W 1V1 Canada Tel +1 514 890 8125 Fax +1 514 412 7108 Email [email protected] Abstract: Like the field of medicine from which it emanates, public health is more a process of intervention than a research activity. As such, the premise of this empirical article is that public healt...

The first of two essays in this issue demonstrated that the United States has had a rich history of medical pluralism. This essay seeks to present an overview of contemporary unconventional medical practices in the United States. No clear definition of "alternative medicine" is offered because it is a residual category composed of heterogeneous healing methods. A descriptive taxonomy of contemp...

Recent concerns among economists over global climate change have given rise to an uneven literature on intergenerational welfare economics. Environmental & Resource Economics in its March 2011 issue published a paper by the political philosopher John E. Roemer that contains not only errors of interpretation of what others have written, but also misunderstandings of settled matters. I respond an...