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→Clinical case and logic of medical language
We are obviously in front of a series of topics that deserve adequate discussion because they concern clinical diagnostics.
We are obviously in front of a series of topics that deserve adequate discussion because they concern clinical diagnostics.
Unlike the formal languages of mathematics, logic and computer programming (which are artificial systems of signs with precise rules of syntax and semantics), most scientific languages develop as a simple expansion of natural language with a mix of some technical terms. The medical language belongs to this intermediate category. It emerges from natural and everyday language by adding terms such as 'neuropathic pain', 'Temporomandibular Disorders', 'demyelination', 'allodynia', etc. It is why it has no specific and semantic syntax beyond the one it takes from natural language. For example, let's consider the term 'disease' referring to the patient Mary Poppins: this is a term that indicates the fundamental concept of medicine, disease at the base of nosology and clinical research and practice. It is expected to be a well-defined technical term, yet it is still an indefinite term.
Unlike the formal languages of mathematics, logic and computer programming (which are artificial systems of signs with precise rules of syntax and semantics), most scientific languages develop as a simple expansion of natural language with a mix of some technical terms. The medical language belongs to this intermediate category. It emerges from natural and everyday language by adding terms such as 'neuropathic pain', 'Temporomandibular Disorders', 'demyelination', 'allodynia', etc. It is why it has no specific and semantic syntax beyond the one it takes from natural language. For example, let's consider the term 'disease' referring to the patient Mary Poppins: this is a term that indicates the fundamental concept of medicine, disease at the base of nosology and clinical research and practice. It is expected to be a well-defined technical term, yet it is still an indefinite term.
Nobody knows what it means precisely and, apart from some philosophers of medicine, nobody is interested in its exact meaning. For example, does 'disease' concern the subject/patient or the System (as a living organism)? And consequently: can a patient who is not sick in time <math>t_n</math> live together with a system already in a state of structural damage in time <math>t_{i,-1}</math>?
Nobody knows what it means precisely and, apart from some philosophers of medicine, nobody is interested in its exact meaning. For example, does 'disease' concern the subject/patient or the System (as a living organism)? And consequently: can a patient who is not sick in time <math>t_n</math> live together with a system already in a state of structural damage in time <math>t_{i,-1}</math>?
|DOI=10.1007/978-94-007-2260-6
|DOI=10.1007/978-94-007-2260-6
|OCLC=
|OCLC=
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* In short, is the patient Mary Poppins sick, or is the chewing System damaged?
* Is it instead a 'System' disease considering the masticatory System in its entirety consisting of subsets such as receptors, peripheral and central nervous tissue, maxillary bones, teeth, tongue, skin, etc.,?
* Or is it an 'organ' disease involving in this specific case the temporomandibular joint (TMJ)? These brief notes demonstrate how natural language's inaccuracies and peculiarities enter medicine through its syntactic and semantically underdeveloped form. We should deal with some of these peculiarities with concrete clinical examples.