Originally Posted by
The Atheist
And ...
Fallacy of argument from (almost false) authority from
The Atheist. Not a surprise given the rest of the thread.
This is well known stuff. Just because someone is thought to be an authority does not make their opinions correct because they are an authority. This is worse when that person is not a really appropriate authority
!
Stegenga has impressive credentials as a
philosopher of science. An area of his philosophical research is "methodological problems of medical research" so he is knowledgeable about the methods of medical research. However he is not an expert on antidepressants.
Stegenga's essay is not about the actual contents of the scientific papers about medical research into the effectiveness of antidepressants. He is basically saying that problems with any medical research make the results of this research dubious.
I happen to agree with that. The placebo effect is hard to separate out from drug effects.
Stegenga's conclusion though is a personal opinion, not based on science or philosophy of science.
If the medical research trying to distinguish between placebo and drug effects cannot distinguish between placebo and drug effects then it is impossible to choose the placebo effect over the drug effect or vice versa. "Placebo, not Prozac" is not a conclusion that can be reached from the science. "Placebo, not Prozac" is not a conclusion that can be reached from philosophy of science. The valid conclusion is "Placebo
and/or Prozac" (I just had "or" before).