Medical Nihilism

Jacob Stegenga is a Lecturer in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. He received a Ph.D. from the University of California San Diego, and he has held fellowships at the University of Toronto and the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University. His research focuses on philosophy of science, including methodological problems of medical research, conceptual questions in evolutionary biology, and fundamental topics in reasoning and rationality.

Ultimately, medical nihilism is an important topic in healthcare today, and the present book is a significant addition to that topic, which deserves wide readership and engagement.

• 1: Introduction Part I. Concepts 2: Effectiveness of Medical Interventions 3: Effectiveness and Medicalization 4: Magic Bullets Part II. Methods 5: Down with the Hierarchies 6: Malleability of Meta-Analysis 7: Assessing Medical Evidence 8: Measuring Effectiveness 9: Hollow Hunt for Harms Part III. Evidence and Values 10: Bias and Fraud 11: Medical Nihilism 12: Conclusion Appendix 1. Bayes' Theorem and Screening Appendix 2. Measurement Scales Appendix 3. Epistemic Proof of Superiority of RD over RR Appendix 4. Decision-Theoretic Proof of Superiority of RD over RR Appendix 5. Modeling the Measurement of Effectiveness