Chiropractic philosophy

Within the chiropractic profession there is concern over both the appropriate paradigm for educating the student and the appropriate research model for investigating health care and promotion. The purpose of this study was to identify, interpret, and describe a paradigm for chiropractic education and research. Chiropractic first principles and existing health care paradigms were identified and integrated with the characteristics of chiropractic practice described in sociological studies of the chiropractic profession...

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The debate over the metaphysical elements of Palmer's theories, and in chiropractic generally, has been a long and frequently bitter one. This article attempts to show the illogicality of both sides of the debate by reviewing the role of metaphysics in science and the discussions of metaphysics in philosophy. Within philosophy, metaphysics have been viewed, at least by those who do not object to them outright, as heuristic devices, which, although they cannot be subjected to either confirmation or refutation (that is, we cannot know if they are true or false), can be subjected to rational criticism...

The interest in alternative medicine in the general population is spread widely. About one fourth of swiss family doctors use alternative medical methods. The increasing practise of these methods does, inspite of some reservations towards classic medicine, not legitimate their uncritical acceptance. Effective methods, however, should be integrated into classic medicine. By increasingly anthropocentric orientation, acceptance of illness as part of life and support for individual responsibility for health classic medicine itself becomes alternative, namely more friendly for man and his environment...

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OBJECTIVES: The establishment of nomenclature is a sign of maturity in any field. Each discipline formally adopts or sanctions the terminology based by its practitioners. METHODS: Description of the development of chiropractic nomenclature through consensus methodology. A model was designed as an algorithm to outline steps leading to broad geographical and philosophical agreement. RESULTS: Moving through a regional nominal panel to an international Delphi panel, consensus at the 80% level of agreement was obtained for 10 terms and definitions commonly used by the chiropractic profession...

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The development of a philosophy of chiropractic is reviewed with reference to the reductionist trend in chiropractic epistemology. The debate within chiropractic between the positivistic materialist position and the anachronistic traditionalist position is examined in terms of the emerging needs of the profession to develop a critical approach to the experimental nature of the patient/practitioner relationship. The potential for phenomenology, hermeneutics and science to illuminate the epistemology debate is discussed with reference to the emancipatory role of critical theory...

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Chiropractors as autonomous consulting professionals, acting as a portal of entry into the health care system, have a scope of practice which is diagnostically unlimited but therapeutically restricted. Chiropractic therapy is confined to natural means of intervention. Included in the health care responsibilities of primary contact practitioners is the requirement that they serve as a health relevant information source for their patients and clients. Chiropractors are achieving disease intervention by participating in the health education of their patients...

Chiropractic and medical models of health care are perceived as philosophically incompatible by chiropractic practitioners and spokesmen for the medical profession. This alleged incompatibility is used to rationalize the resistance of the medical profession to the functional integration of chiropractic into the orthodox referral system. Structural integration of chiropractic into the orthodox health care system which is unaccompanied by functional integration fails to confer upon patients the benefits of that system...

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No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.