Concepts/analogies/metaphors/models that depend on having certain technologies to be understood. Possible examples: the clockwork universe, human mind as a computer. Although in some cases it is not clear whether a certain technology was necessary to inspire the creation of the philosophical concept, or was it simply a very nice example that helped to elucidate an already existing idea.
Historian David Wootton argues that until mid-19th century and the discovery of germ theory physicians did more harm than good to their patients. Nowadays most people expect positive results when they go to the doctor.
Many other inventions changed the landscape of ideas and what is taken for granted (ability to communicate over long distances, ability to store fresh food safely in the fridge (according to a documentary I watched, this was one of the main factors that enabled the growth of cities), large ships, accurate maps with no uncharted territories, etc.).
It think this question is very broad, perhaps too broad.
Historian David Wootton argues that until mid-19th century and the discovery of germ theory physicians did more >harm than good to their patients. Nowadays most people expect positive results when they go to the doctor.
This raises two questions:
1) Why, despite this, doctor was in general respected and well-paid profession?
2) What would have happened if use of statistics in medicine became widespread before germ theory. Could it lead to ban on medicine?
1) Why, despite this, doctor was in general respected and well-paid profession?
The faith-healing preacher, the witch-doctor, and the traditional healer are respected professions in the cultures where they occur. The Hippocratic physician was basically the traditional healer of Western civilization. He offered interventions that might kill, might cure, and were certainly impressive.
(It’s worth noting that surgery was not within the traditional province of physicians. The original Hippocratic oath forbids physicians from doing surgery since they were not trained in it.)
Nowadays most people expect positive results when they go to the doctor.
That’s not a new idea!
Lewis Thomas (“The Youngest Science”) dates net benefit to well past 1900.
Your first link seems to say that Wootton dates it to antiseptic surgery. But that’s just one good thing, which needn’t balance many bad things. I’ve heard that the bad doctors did increased in the 19th century. For example, Lewis Thomas says that homeopathy was a reaction to the increase in the harm of 19th century drugs. Your second link seems to say that Wootton isn’t talking about net effects, but of doctors doing any good at all. That’s a pretty strong claim.
A few examples:
Accurate timekeeping and strict schedules (a very famous example). Although sundials and water clocks were known since antiquity, they weren’t very accurate and the length of an hour varied with the length of the day. It was rare for an average person to have a strict schedule. Even in monasteries and churches schedules probably could not be very strict, as although clocks did strike hours usually they weren’t very accurate (13th-14th century mechanical clocks had no faces at all, and it wasn’t until late 17th century when they became precise enough to justify regular use of minute hands) and they would likely regularly be reset at local high noon each day. In fact, it was only after the invention of pendulum clock by Christiaan Huygens in 1656 that timekeeping became accurate and independent of the length of the day, however, as late as 1773, towns were content to order clocks without minute hands as they saw no need for them. In 1840 railway time was invented. It was “the first recorded occasion when different local times were synchronised and a single standard time applied. Railway time was progressively taken up by all railway companies in Great Britain over the following two to three years.”. According to wikipedia, 98% of Great Britain’s public clocks were using GMT by 1855. After the industrial revolution and invention of the light bulb, most people have schedules which depend on the official time rather than Sun’s position in the sky.
Historian Roger Ekirch argues that before the industrial revolution the segmented sleep was the dominant form of human slumber in Western civilization and it is a myth that we need eight hours of uninterrupted sleep each night.
Concepts/analogies/metaphors/models that depend on having certain technologies to be understood. Possible examples: the clockwork universe, human mind as a computer. Although in some cases it is not clear whether a certain technology was necessary to inspire the creation of the philosophical concept, or was it simply a very nice example that helped to elucidate an already existing idea.
Historian David Wootton argues that until mid-19th century and the discovery of germ theory physicians did more harm than good to their patients. Nowadays most people expect positive results when they go to the doctor.
Many other inventions changed the landscape of ideas and what is taken for granted (ability to communicate over long distances, ability to store fresh food safely in the fridge (according to a documentary I watched, this was one of the main factors that enabled the growth of cities), large ships, accurate maps with no uncharted territories, etc.).
It think this question is very broad, perhaps too broad.
This raises two questions:
1) Why, despite this, doctor was in general respected and well-paid profession?
2) What would have happened if use of statistics in medicine became widespread before germ theory. Could it lead to ban on medicine?
The faith-healing preacher, the witch-doctor, and the traditional healer are respected professions in the cultures where they occur. The Hippocratic physician was basically the traditional healer of Western civilization. He offered interventions that might kill, might cure, and were certainly impressive.
(It’s worth noting that surgery was not within the traditional province of physicians. The original Hippocratic oath forbids physicians from doing surgery since they were not trained in it.)
That’s not a new idea!
Lewis Thomas (“The Youngest Science”) dates net benefit to well past 1900.
Your first link seems to say that Wootton dates it to antiseptic surgery. But that’s just one good thing, which needn’t balance many bad things. I’ve heard that the bad doctors did increased in the 19th century. For example, Lewis Thomas says that homeopathy was a reaction to the increase in the harm of 19th century drugs. Your second link seems to say that Wootton isn’t talking about net effects, but of doctors doing any good at all. That’s a pretty strong claim.