توصیهٔ سلامتی و اینکه از کجا می‌آیدHealth advice and where it comes from

Granting the experience, questioning the explanation

داروساز کاری دشوار و شایستهٔ تقلید می‌کند: در آنچه رخ داده تردید نمی‌کند، فقط در چراییِ آن. اول پذیرفتنِ تجربه: it may well have، I am sure she did feel better، I do not doubt that at all. به it may well have دقت کن — may + well + have + اسم مفعول، همان گمانه‌زنیِ گذشتهٔ درس ۸ با well برای تقویت. انکار تجربه هم بی‌ادبانه است هم غیرضروری؛ بحث اصلاً دربارهٔ آن نیست. زیر سؤال بردنِ انتساب تمامِ حرکت است، و انگلیسی مجموعهٔ تمیزی دارد: the question is whether…، that does not tell us whether…، how would we know if it were the other thing?، what else was happening at the same time? توضیحِ جایگزین، عرضه‌شده نه تحمیل‌شده: it often lifts on its own؛ people usually seek help at the worst point, so almost anything looks like it worked؛ the improvement may have been going to happen anyway. همین آخری — was going to happen anyway — خلافِ واقع است که بی‌صدا کار می‌کند. و پرسشِ ساختاری که مفیدترین عادتِ همه است: چه کسی نفع شخصی دارد، و اگر ادعا نادرست بود انتظار داشتیم چه ببینیم؟ ادعایی که چیز خاصی را پیش‌بینی نمی‌کند نمی‌تواند نادرست باشد، و ادعایی که نمی‌تواند نادرست باشد چیزی به تو نمی‌گوید.

The pharmacist does something difficult and worth copying: she does not doubt what happened, only why. GRANTING THE EXPERIENCE first: it may well have, I am sure she did feel better, I do not doubt that at all. Note it may well have — may + well + have + past participle, the past speculation of lesson 8 with well added to strengthen it. Denying the experience is both rude and unnecessary; the argument is never about that. QUESTIONING THE ATTRIBUTION is the whole move, and English has a clean set: the question is whether…, that does not tell us whether…, how would we know if it were the other thing?, what else was happening at the same time? THE ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATION, offered rather than asserted: it often lifts on its own; people usually seek help at the worst point, so almost anything looks like it worked; the improvement may have been going to happen anyway. That last one — was going to happen anyway — is the counterfactual doing quiet work. And THE STRUCTURAL QUESTION, which is the most useful habit of all: who has a vested interest, and what would we expect to see if the claim were false? A claim that predicts nothing in particular cannot be wrong, and a claim that cannot be wrong is not telling you anything.