The Place of the Humanities in Medical Education

Abstract

The word science is derived from the Latin scientia, which means knowledge. There are many compartments of science such as moral, political and natural, but the word “science” in its modern sense means an organised body of knowledge. Natural science is that which comes from awareness of the material environment in which we live. It is gained firstly by observation and also from the results of experiments which may be defined as situations planned to test the truth of an hypothesis. The words “truth” and "logic” prepare us for the idea of the “scientific method,” which is a system of accurate reasoning whereby knowledge becomes objectively exact.