Semmelweis was trying to convince doctors to wash their hands in the 1850s!
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Replying to @TWLadyGrey @TheWeaseKing and
right, but through trial and error I believe, not because he had a well developed understanding of germs.
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Replying to @nberlat @TheWeaseKing and
I think we are crossing plots here. My assumption is a 19th century doctor was aware of how the scientific method works and it probably shaped his thinking.
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Replying to @TWLadyGrey @TheWeaseKing and
this is absolutely false! the scientific method is a modern day invention and historians and philosophers of science generally believe it has little to do with how science works!
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Replying to @nberlat @TheWeaseKing and
I think this debate is suffering from “science is what I say science is” and “the scientific method is what I say it is.”
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Replying to @TWLadyGrey @nberlat and
Well, no, it's acknowledging that if "science" literally just means "knowing things" then it becomes a much less useful term and then there's no such thing as a "pre-scientific civilization" etc
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Replying to @arthur_affect @nberlat and
So you and Noah are arguing that science doesn’t exist and thus we can’t thank science for life expectancy being what it is today. If that’s where you want to take this debate then
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Replying to @TWLadyGrey @arthur_affect and
of course not! we're arguing that evidence and history should be used to examine the workings of science itself! it's anti science, and anti historical, to insist science works the way you think it does and to dismiss counterevidence as ideologically intolerable!
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Replying to @nberlat @arthur_affect and
Why did we have mass indoor plumbing in cities? Was it because poop was smelly or because we knew waste in the streets was a public health issue
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Replying to @TWLadyGrey @nberlat and
The former, that's why people kept drinking the cholera infected water as long as it looked and smelled clean
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This is literally the story of the Broad Street pump, it's famous because of how hard John Snow had to fight against public opinion for the concept of germ theory
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