Comments on the survey: Beliefs, endorsement and application of homeopathy und Anwendung der Homöopathie
It is argued that strong a priori standpoints may bear the risk of compromising the scientific discourse and may lead to imbalanced conclusions.
Abstract
Homeopathy is a controversial subject, and the positions of Markun et al. are clearly determined. They claim that “placebo effects seem the most obvious explanation” for homoeopathic effects, because “explanation models for the effectiveness of homeopathy are not supported by natural sciences and the aggregated evidence from clinical trials is unconvincing” to them. They blame that “still, many physicians continue to prescribe homeopathic treatments” and the authors see ethical problems therefore. Here, we argue that strong a priori standpoints may bear the risk of compromising the scientific discourse and may lead to imbalanced conclusions.