中医学的科学定位

Scientific Positioning of Traditional Chinese Medicine

有关中医学是否科学的争论已经持续了百年之久,尚无统一共识。争论的混淆点之一是因为在讨论中没有分清"科学"与"科学的"的区别。本文认为中医学本身尚不能归入纯科学的范畴,但中医学的主体是科学的,同时也存在部分未经证实的中医学说。本文试将医学的科学水平分为8级:医学科学、科学的医学、医学体系、医学理论、医学学说、医学信仰、医学迷信及医学欺诈。中医学和西医学均可以在这个的定位体系中找到自己的位置。当前中医学科学水准还明显低于现代西医学,尚有待进一步的研究和提高。

Whether traditional Chinese medicine（ TCM） could be categorized as a kind of science or not has been a controversial issue over last century. Part of the confusion is caused by the indistinguishable usage of Chinese words ＂ science＂ and ＂ scientific＂ during discussion. According to western academic standards,TCM cannot be considered as pure or conventional science. However,in author＇s view,the foundation of a majority part of TCM practice is probably scientific,while many TCM theories remain unproved. In this article,medical theories and practices are classified based on scientific content into eight levels： medical science,scientific medicine,medical system,medical theory,medical opinion,medical belief,medical cultism,and medical fraud. Both Western medicine and TCM are positioned in this system accordingly. Currently,the scientific level of TCM is much lower than that of Western medicine,and more research is needed for its improvement.