Empirical Evidence in a Process of Clinical Decision Making

Abstract

The subject of this article is to discuss epistemological issues related to the pro-cess of obtaining empirical evidence in medicine. This paper will present how N. Cartwright, J. Worrall and P. Urbach describe the function of the randomisation pro-cedure in this process. Based on these findings, it will be possible to define an alter-native method of obtaining empirical evidence for the purpose of making clinical decisions. This method involves data analysis using the Rough Set Theory proposed by Z. Pawlak. By applying this method, a deterministic algorithm for making clinical decisions can be formulated. Being an interesting alternative to statistical approaches that dominate in medicine, the RST method generates specific epistemological problems. Therefore, it seems to constitute an interesting subject of analysis for philosophers of science.