Correlating facts or interpreting meaning: two different epistemological projects within medical research

Two different epistemological projects within medical research are presented and compared in this article. One project is the statistical approach that has long occupied a dominant position in medical science. The other project deals with the interpretation of meaning. The authors contend that these projects are different, but not contradictory. The importance of respecting the peculiarities of each is stressed. Several aspects of the projects are compared, including the character of the research object, the knowledge interests, and the use of empirical data. It is argued, among other things, that the phenomenological interpretation of meaning is epistemologically prior to the statistical correlation of facts. The article ends with a discussion of validation procedures based on the idea that all research is conducted starting from a certain perspective.