Commentary on Kanani. The Scientific Investigation of Asian Folk Practices: A Paradigm of Asian Bioethics
- Yeruham Frank Leavitt, Ph.D.
Chairman, The Centre for Asian and International Bioethics
Faculty of Health Sciences
Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
Fax: + 972-7-6477633
Email: yeruham@bgumail.bgu.ac.il
Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 9 (1999), 176.
A major reason behind the Asian Bioethics movement is the lack, both in the sciences and in their ethics, of sufficient serious attention to beliefs and practices in "non-Western" parts of the world. After all, traditional practices have served millions of people for perhaps millions of years. They are not perfect. But modern science is not perfect either.
Along with the world-wide interest today in Asian spirituality of various forms -- Yoga, Zen, the Tao, Martial Arts, etc -- there is a growing interest in the scientific study of folk practices in medicine and other fields. During the Asian Bioethics Association conference in Beijing a few years ago I happened by accident upon another conference in the same building. This conference was devoted to the study of herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine, including epidemiological studies of their efficacy as well as laboratory attempts to isolate their active ingredients in preparation for clinical trials. The US Government today has an office of alternative medicine, and there are a number of journals devoted to the scientific study of alternative medical techniques. Kanani's attempt at a scientific study of Gujarati folk methods in weather prediction should be an important contribution to this movement.
It might be of interest to note the emphasis on astrology in Kanani's study. Astrology is often cited by scientists and philosophers of science as a prime example of superstitious, primitive, non-scientific thinking. But it is here that the scientists are being unscientific and the philosophers of science untrue to their philosophies. Because they never cite any scientific proofs that astrology is wrong. They simply say it and expect you to believe it. (They are probably also thinking only of newspaper horoscopes, rather than the real thing. And nobody believes in newspaper horoscopes anyway.) Kanani's study is an important contribution to the scientific study of practices relying on astrology. Hopefully we shall be able to draw wider-reaching conclusions after data are in from other studies.
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