Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 May 2018
En 1620, Francis Bacon constatait: « La recherche et la découverte de la vérité ne se font et ne peuvent se faire que de deux façons. La première saute des significations et des particularités aux axiomes les plus généraux... c'est la mode actuelle. L'autre arrive aux axiomes en partant des significations et des particularités selon une courbe ascendante et continue qui mène en dernier au plus général des axiomes. Ceci est la bonne voie, même si elle n'a pas encore cours » (Novum Organum, 1620).
Recent studies in epidemiology and the behavioural sciences demonstrate that environmental, social and psychological factors play a large role in the incidence of all types of diseases. This information along with new models derived from the pure sciences have called into question some of the premises upon which "cosmopolitan" medicine is based. The traditional East Asian medical model and the Western, bio-medical model are analysed and compared as products of their respective historical and cultural traditions. It is demonstrated that attitudes of both doctors and patients towards diagnosis, therapeutic goals, the sick role and the meaning of illness, among other factors, are profoundly modified by cultural context. It is suggested that in light of current epidemiological trends the biomedical model could be complemented by systems theory in which environmental, cultural, social and psychological variables are attributed as much consideration as biological factors.