ABSTRACT
Evidence-based medicine (EBM) has become the dominant epistemology of medicine in the past couple of decades. This chapter surveys its basic tenets, as well as criticisms that have been levied against EBM by physicians and by philosophers. Topics include EBM’s approach to ranking evidence from different kinds of clinical research; questions about the extent to which such evidence can best be used in patient care; and social influences on how evidence is produced and used.
