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The Third Law (Barseghyan-2015) (view source)
Revision as of 17:41, 27 January 2023
, 17:41, 27 January 2023no edit summary
{{Theory Example
|Title=Drug Trial Methods
|Description="How exactly can changes in accepted theories trigger changes in employed methods? What is the precise mechanism of method change? How do methods become employed?".[[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|pp. 136]] Barseghyan presents the example of testing a new drug for alleviating depression to as an example of the third lawand in answer to these questions. In summary, the evolution of the drug trial methods is an example of the third law in action. For example, the discovery of the placebo effect in drug testing demonstrates that fake treatment can cause improvement in patient symptoms. As a result of its discovery the abstract requirement of “when assessing a drug’s efficacy, the possible placebo effect must be taken into account” was generated. This abstract requirement is, by definition, an accepted theory which stipulates that, if ignored, substantial doubt would be cast on any trial. As a result of this new theory, the Single-Blind Trial method was devised. The currently employed method in drug testing is the Double-Blind Trial, a method which specifies all of the abstract requirements of its predecessors. It is an apt illustration of how new methods are generated through the acceptance of new theories, as well as how new methods employ the abstract requirements of their predecessors.[[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|pp. 132-152]]
Specifically, Barseghyan begins with the question "How can we ensure that the improvement was due to the drug itself and not due to other unaccounted factors?" The question is answered by the implementation of a ''controlled trial'', wherein "we organize a trial with two groups of patients with the same condition – the active group and the control group. Only the patients in the active group receive the drug".[[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|pp. 134]]
<blockquote>What we have here is a transition from one method to another triggered by a new piece of knowledge about the world. The initial method was something along the lines of hypothetico-deductivism: we had a hypothesis “the drug is effective in alleviating depression” and we wanted to confirm it experimentally. Once we learnt that the alleviation may be due to other factors, our initial method was modified to require that a drug’s efficacy must be tested in a controlled trial.[[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|pp. 134]]</blockquote>
Another transition in method occurred when upon the discovery of the ''placebo effect'', or the fact "that the improvement in patients’ condition can be due to the patients’ belief that the treatment will improve their condition"[[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|pp. 135]]. Now,
<blockquote>it was no longer sufficient to have two groups of patients. If only one of the two groups received the drug then the resulting positive effect could be due to the patients’ belief that the drug was really efficient in alleviating their condition. The solution was to organize a ''blind trial.'' We take two groups of patients with the condition, but this time we make sure that both groups of patients believe that they undergo treatment. However, only the patients of the active group receive the real drug; to the patients in the control group we give a placebo (fake treatment).[[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|pp. 135]]</blockquote>
Once again, Barseghyan writes, "this is an instance of a method change brought about by a change in accepted theories".[[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|pp. 135]] <blockquote>But why are we forced to introduce this new requirement to our method of drug testing? Well, because this new requirement follows deductively from two elements of the mosaic – from our knowledge that the results of testing a hypothesis about a drug’s efficacy may be voided by the placebo effect and from a more fundamental requirement that we must accept only the best available hypotheses.[[CiteRef::Barseghyan (2015)|pp. 137]]</blockquote>
A final change in method occurred when ''experimenter's bias'' was discovered:
