TY - JOUR T1 - General practice--a post-modern specialty? JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 177 LP - 179 VL - 47 IS - 416 AU - N Mathers AU - S Rowland Y1 - 1997/03/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/47/416/177.abstract N2 - The 'modern' view of the world is based on the premise that we can discover the essential truth of the world using scientific method. The assumption is made that knowledge so acquired has been 'uncontaminated' by the mind of the investigator. Post-modern theory, however, is concerned with the process of knowing and how our minds are part of the process, i.e. our perceptions of reality and the relationships between different concepts are important influences on our ways of knowing. The values of post-modern theory are those of uncertainty, many different voices and experiences of reality and multifaceted descriptions of truth. These values are closer to our experience of general practice than the 'modern' values of scientific rationalism and should be reflected in a new curriculum for general practice. ER -