Demystifying the Placebo Effect

<p>This dissertation offers a philosophical analysis of the placebo effect. After offering an overview of recent evidence concerning the phenomenon, I consider several prominent accounts of the placebo effect that have been put forward and argue that none of them are able to adequately account for the diverse instantiations of the phenomenon. I then offer a novel account, which suggests that we ought to think of the placebo effect as encompassing three distinct responses: conditioned placebo responses, cognitive placebo responses, and network placebo responses. Next, I consider implications of the placebo effect’s role in complementary and alternative medicine for discussions of how to demarcate between science and pseudoscience within philosophy of science. Finally, I offer a bioethical argument that maintains that the neglect of the placebo effect within medicine may be contributing to an increase in health disparities along lines of race and ethnicity.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Philosophy

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2018

Author dc:creator

• Friesen, Phoebe

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Peter Godfrey-Smith

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Jesse Prinz
• John Greenwood

• Alternative and Complementary Medicine
• Applied Ethics
• Bioethics and Medical Ethics
• Medical Sciences
• Philosophy
• Philosophy of Science
• placebo effect
• conditioning
• expectancies
• pseudoscience
• health disparities

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2775

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-3835