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External and Internal Evidence in Clinical Judgment: The Evidence-Based Medicine Attitude
- Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 15, Number 2, June 2008
- pp. 135-139
- 10.1353/ppp.0.0179
- Article
- Additional Information
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A certain kind of externalism—"the view from nowhere"—lies at the heart of evidence-based medicine (EBM). As a consequence, the individual case glides out of focus. However, to judge to what extent external knowledge is applicable to an individual case, the clinician has to rely on some sort of knowledge of the case at hand. The article focuses on the tension between the externalism of EBM and the "internal evidence" one has to presuppose when making clinical judgments.