ABSTRACT
In the 1980s the notion of ‘evidence’ came to occupy a dominant position in medicine and mental health care (Geddes et al. 1997). Terms such as ‘evidence-based medicine’ have been used to underline and to legitimise new types of therapy in a rapidly changing field of medicine (Sackett et al. 1997). But ‘evidence’ was always an integral part of human reasoning and even of religious faith. Nevertheless, the answer to the question ‘what is evidence?’ has changed over the course of time. The nature of ‘evidence’ is not only historically shaped. It also depends on cultural circumstances, on philosophical and epistemological reflections (Feldman 1993), and on disciplinary boundaries. In law, ‘evidence’ includes physical objects and events, such as weapons or footprints; for a deeply devout Christian a miracle can be ‘evidence’ for the existence of God.
