Epistemological Evaluation of Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture

"The article gives an explanation of the paradoxical circumstances connected with the German GERAC study （they are similar in other Western countries） in order to halt further misconception and careless spending. For almost six decades the European acupuncture scene has been dominated by Souliè de Morant’s energy and meridian humbug, something that was even praised by such an eminent scholar as Joseph Needham. It is still reflected in conservative academic publications and in teaching seminars world-wide. Chinese medicine, when it is correctly applied and properly understood, starts from a paradigm different from that used by orthodox Western medicine, whereas orthodox medical researchers and politicians try to force Chinese medicine into a straight-jacket which involves the concept of doubleblind studies, average values, mathematical estimates and statistics as employed by Evidence Based Medicine （EBM）. Diagnosis and therapy in Chinese medicine commence from the horizon of Shen 神 and Yin-Yang 陰陽 （Gr.ἡ ẚρχή）, they involve the concept of the Whole of the Universe （Gr. το ὅλον） as well as the flow of time, something which allows the induction （Gr. ἐπαγωγή） of further data, diagrams, diagnostics, techniques and therapies. In the classical textbook Huangdi Neijing Lingshu the imperial physician Qi Bo explains that Shen 神 is the substantial phenomenon to be understood by acupuncture doctors, and from where all further phenomena of Chinese medicine are deduced. This is what makes deductive Chinese medicine, in association with clinical induction, so effective and safe and reduces risks and side-effects to a minimum Deduction is not only an important procedure in Chinese tradition, but also a keystone of Occidental logic. In his Lecture on Nature （ΦΥΣΙΚΗΣ ΑΚΡΟΑΣΕΩΣ） Aristotle maintains that reliable proof can only be attained by deducing this from what he calls ‘substance’ （ύποκείμενον）. He labels the aspects that are attributed to the substance as ‘accident’ （συμβεβηκός）, and he declares that an accidental attribute has no being at all. In his Metaphysics he states that by induction using accident, no valid scientific proof can be attained at all. Orthodox Western medicine and, above all, Evidence Based Medicine （EBM） deal for the most part with accident. The solution to this apparent dilemma is: Deduction and induction should be applied in combination. This has been carried out in China since ancient times by anatomical studies, by testing the effects of medicinal herbs, by tongue and pulse diagnosis and by specific acupuncture procedures. All the achievements of modern Western medicine can be integrated and properly applied within Chinese medicine, but not vice versa, since the deductive method will always keep its key role because it grasps Autiasis which works as a ‘substance’ （ύποκείμενον） comprehending the main Principle, the Whole, Yin-Yang 陰陽, Dao 道, Shen 神; that is what Aristotle named substance; the deduction and the analysis of parts from there （ἐπαγωγή） is the method he called science （ἐπιστήμη）. "