Failure to Consider a Radically New Scientific Idea or Theory

Abstract

From plate tectonics theory to psychoneuroimmunology, to medical uses of marijuana, and controlled drinking by alcoholics, there has been a consistent failure by scientists and medical researchers to consider radically new ideas and theories. A review and analysis of these cases and other examples identified numerous reasons or barriers for this failure. Learning from these episodes of failure requires attention to and reflection on these barriers, an understanding of how the scientific process progresses and scientific knowledge evolves, and a willingness to test and evaluate these new ideas and theories before passing final judgment on them.

Keywords :

• failure
• scientific knowledge
• controlled drinking

THE AUTHORS

Michael Montagne, PhD, is Professor of Social Pharmacy and Senior Associate Dean of Pharmaceutical Education at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences. He has taught and performed research for 32 years on the social, cultural, and historical aspects of drug effects, drug use, and drug discovery. His recent publications include: “Buzz, High, and Stoned: Metaphor, Meaning, and the Cannabis Experience” in Cannabis and Philosophy, edited by Dale Jacquette (2010); “Drugs on the Internet II: Antidepressant medication websites” with Melissa Morgan for Substance Use & Misuse (2011), and a special issue edited for Substance Use & Misuse (SUM) on Drugs and the Media (2011). He is on the Editorial Board of SUM and edits the Sites of Substance (SOS) section of this journal.

Notes

1 The terms—labels “medical marijuana”, as well as “medicinal alcohol”, which was prescribed during prohibition and was purchased in pharmacies—are misnomers, are political taxonomies, and are misleading in that their legal status in no way indicates neither their pharmacological actions nor the user's “drug experience.” Editor's note.