Reflecting on philosophies of medical education science

Science is dependent on philosophy for many of its core concepts, for its ongoing development, and for the means to appraise what it does and what it produces. Despite this, medical education scholars often seem to have little grounding in philosophy as it applies to the work they do. In this commentary, the author considers some key philosophical questions related to medical education. For example, what is the purpose of medical education? What are the meanings, uses, and implications of generalizability and the middle-range in medical education? How are theory and practice connected? What are the ontological, epistemological, and axiological capabilities of different theories and methodologies? In what ways and to what ends should knowledge claims be appraised? What are the limitations of science and the knowledge it can produce? What makes a ‘good’ researcher? Medical education scholars need to be able to answer these kinds of philosophical questions if the quality and utility of medical education science is to be assured.