Exploring Philosophical Schools of Thought and Chiropractic Reasoning

This report provides an overview of the main philosophical schools of thought and methods of reasoning used in the practice of chiropractic. It begins by defining chiropractic and its goals, then explores key philosophical concepts such as holism, reductionism, vitalism, naturalism, therapeutic conservatism, humanism, materialism, and critical rationalism. The report also examines different methods of reasoning, including inductive and deductive reasoning, and how they apply to chiropractic practice. The conclusion summarizes the importance of these philosophical schools and reasoning methods in shaping the identity and approach of chiropractic within the healthcare field, emphasizing their impact on patient healing and overall practice effectiveness. The report references various scholarly articles and journals to support the discussed concepts.

Main philosophical schools of
thoughts and methods of
reasoning and discuss them in
the context of the practice of
chiropractic

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Main philosophical schools of thoughts......................................................................................3
Methods of Reasoning.................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Chiropractic can be defined as a profession in health care wherein chiropractors perform
reconciliation to the spine or other parts of the body (Cassidy and et.al., 2017). The primary goal
of this practise is to correct the problems relating to the alignment, ease out the pain and help the
body to naturally heal itself. Chiropractors help in improving the adjustments of the spine so that
the flow of blood increases, leading to improvement in the conductivity of joints. The philosophy
of the practice of chiropractic is that it involves the body naturally seeking the appropriate
balance among all the systems. This is because they work together collectively. The report is
based on the topic, “Main philosophical schools of thoughts and methods of reasoning and
discuss them in the context of the practice of chiropractic.” There is a description of the main
philosophical schools of thoughts along with different methods of reasoning.
MAIN BODY
Main philosophical schools of thoughts
In order to heal a pain, the chiropractors first take down the medical history and then
perform a physical examination in order to determine the best treatment for healing the pain
(Chiropractic Care for Back Pain, 2020). it can be said that the philosophy of chiropractic
should be developed in such a way that is defensible intellectually. The philosophy of
chiropractic involves various schools of thoughts that are explained below -
Holism - Holism means treating a person in such a way as to optimise their overall
health. This is the reason why chiropractors use a variety of methods which include nutrition,
manual care, advice on leading a healthy lifestyle etc. It is based on the idea that a whole person
is greater in comparison to the sum of individual parts (Funk, 2018). As per this philosophical
school of thought, the different physical, social, physical as well as spiritual aspects contribute
significantly to the overall health of an individual. Sometimes, the patients can find this school of
thought to be offensive because the chiropractor asking questions about their state of mind when
they seek help.
Reductionism – This is another school of thought that is the opposite of holism and
involves analysing the individual parts of the body. As per this school of thought, the whole
person is the sum of all the parts. But this has a limited value in the management of the illness.
The ailments can arise as a result of complicated diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular

disease or alcohol abuse. Therefore, under such conditions, it is important to enquire the patients
about their habits in order to bring changes in their lifestyle in order to ensure their good health.
Reductionism, in simple words, cam be explained as all things can be understood by analysing
each of the smallest components.
Vitalism – This is another philosophical school of thought that states that the body of an
individual is sustained by an important force. The body is capable of self healing through this
force which is known as 'innate intelligence'. Also, vitalism states that the cause of an illness lies
within the body as compared to anything external (GANTNER, 2018). Any kind of partial or
incomplete dislocation in the spine or any joint within the body can be adjusted by the
chiropractor. This helps the body to heal itself and return back to the normal state. In other
words, it can be said that the patients heal themselves and that the human body is self organizing
and self regulating.
Naturalism – Naturalism is another philosophical school of thought that can be
considered as an expansion of vitalism. Since the body has the ability to heal itself, any kind of
drugs should not be given unnecessarily in order to treat the disease. As per this school of
thoughts, natural ways are used to initiate the overall healing process of the body. Therefore, the
practitioner does not prescribe any medicines for the healing process. This basically holds true
for short term conditions and more complex conditions require prescribing drugs.
Therapeutic Conservatism – This particular school of thought states that the body is
capable of healing itself and thus, only minimal intervention is required to treat the disorder.
Under this, the chiropractor uses minimum amount of intervention in order to initiate the healing
process. This school of thoughts mainly suggests that in order to allow the body to heal, minimal
number of joint adjustments should be done (Lee and et.al., 2019). This should include minimal
amount of force as it helps in achieving the maximum level of outcome. Some chiropractors
offer the patients as many treatments that they can afford just for financial rewards. But in
reality, only minimal treatments are required in order to allow faster healing.
Humanism - According to Humanism school of thoughts, the patients should be treated
with human being with their rights. Chiropractors mostly go to the venue that is preferred by the
patients in order to provide them with treatment. This ensures maintenance of dignity and
respect. This is an important element of any practice in chiropractic.

Materialism – Materialism is not same as vitalism and is mainly based on natural laws.
This particular school of thought supports the germ theory of disease wherein germs from the
outside invade the body of the person and act as a main cause of illness (Lisi and et.al., 2018).
This particular school of thought seeks to understand the overall nature of the universe and the
mechanism that are accountable for change.
Critical Rationalism – Lastly, critical rationalism states that reason can be used in order
to explain the universe. This school of thought is based on science and thus accepts that both
logic as well as reason are best tools that can be used in order to organize the data. This
particular school of thought states that knowledge enhances by eliminating the errors and
increasing the truth. Also, all knowledge can be processed further. As a result, a better
understanding of the human body as well as the way to cure the diseases can be gained.
Methods of Reasoning
Reasoning can be defined as the process that involves making use of existing knowledge
in order to draw useful conclusions as well as develop explanations. There are different methods
of reasoning that can be used in order to explain the practice of chiropractic (Marcon and
Caulfield, 2017). Chiropractic is referred to as a type of healthcare profession wherein the
chiropractors perform adjustments to the spine of the patients in order to facilitate healing. There
are two types of methods of reasoning, i.e., inductive as well as deductive reasoning the same are
explained below -
Inductive Reasoning – This particular method of reasoning is primarily concerned with
seeking knowledge. It is primarily based on reductionism, which means that the whole is equal to
the sum of its parts. According to this reasoning, if one knows about the individual parts, then
they know about the whole. Inductive reasoning is basis of scientific thought as well as
investigation. It tries to quantify living things. But there are some flaws in the same, like there
are some parts of the human body and thus reasonable assumptions cannot be made. Also, even
if there are more facts, there are still chances of making wrong assumptions. And lastly, the
whole of the body is not the sum of parts.
Deductive Reasoning – This method of reasoning is not a scientific approach and seeks
understanding and not knowledge (Rix and et.al., 2017). One of the limitations of deductive
reasonable is that it does not try to study the parts and instead tries to find the eternal truths that
can be applied to all the things. Since deductive reasoning is based on a priori assumption, if the

priori is wrong, all logical assumptions become wrong. People either accept or reject it based on
their individual beliefs. To look at this in a chiropractic way, there are two concepts, which are
the testable theory and the untestable metaphor (Senecal and Kazemi, 2017). Chiropractic
philosophy is primarily based on the deductive reasoning. This is because, in order to come to a
solution of a problem, one of the main things is to understand the reason. One of the advantages
of this type of reasoning is that there is a logically correct way of answering them.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that chiropractic is a profession in health care
wherein the chiropractors make adjustments to the spine, there are different philosophical
schools of thoughts that can be discussed in context to the practice of chiropractic. These include
reductionism, materialism, vitalism, holism, critical rationalism etc. Besides this, there are two
types of methods of reasoning, inductive as well as deductive reasoning that can be used based
on the need. Both the methods of reasoning have their own limitations. It ca be said that the
different schools of thought give a unique identity to the science of chiropractic. This makes it
stand out from rest of the professions in healthcare. As a result, the healing process in patients is
initiated in an effective manner.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Cassidy, J. D. and et.al., 2017. Risk of carotid stroke after chiropractic care: a population-based
case-crossover study. Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases. 26(4). pp.842-
850.
Funk, M. F., 2018. A survey of chiropractic intern experiences learning and using an electronic
health record system. Journal of Chiropractic Education. 32(2). pp.145-151.
GANTNER, J. H., 2018. Chiropractic History in New York State, 1960-2005: Recollections of a
40-year New York State Chiropractic Association Member, Officer and Committee
Chair. Chiropractic History. 38(2).
Lee, H. and et.al., 2019. Complementary and alternative medicine research in practice-based
research networks: A critical review. Complementary therapies in medicine. 43. pp.7-
19.
Lisi, A. J. and et.al., 2018. Chiropractic integration into private sector medical facilities: a
multisite qualitative case study. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary
Medicine. 24(8). pp.792-800.
Marcon, A. R. and Caulfield, T., 2017. Commenting on chiropractic: A YouTube
analysis. Cogent Medicine. 4(1). p.1277450.
Rix, J. and et.al., 2017. Engagement as predictors of performance in a single cohort of
undergraduate chiropractic students. Journal of Chiropractic Education. 32(1). pp.36-
42.
Senecal, I. and Kazemi, M., 2017. Case Studies of Chiropractic Care of Sports-Related
Concussion in Two Adolescent Taekwondo Athletes. Acta Taekwondo et Martialis
Artium (JIATR). 4(2). pp.13-20.
Online
Chiropractic Care for Back Pain. 2020. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/guide/chiropractic-pain-relief#1>.