Why Does Chiropractic Have a Philosophy?
“Chiropractic is a philosophy, science and art of things natural; a system of adjusting the segments of the spinal column by hand only, for the correction of the cause of dis-ease.” Dr. B.J. Palmer, DC
Why does Chiropractic have a philosophy?
The literally meaning of the word ‘philosophy’ is “the love of wisdom.” In its broader sense, philosophy is “the study of ideas or a set of ideas about knowledge, truth, nature and/or the meaning of life.” Philosophy is also “a set of ideas about how to do something or how to live.”
Chiropractic philosophy is the lens by which we study the natural world, specifically the health and wellness of human beings. We all use a lens of some sort to better understand the world we find ourselves in. A lens guides our perception, comprehension and evaluation of the situations we come in contact with on a daily basis.
R.W. Stephenson, DC connected the dots of Chiropractic philosophy, science and art this way:
“Science tells us what it is; art tells us how it is done, and philosophy, the “why” of the other two.” - R.W. Stephenson, DC
Simon Sinek, a well-known inspirational speaker and author, wrote a popular book called “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action”. According to Simon, your “why” is your purpose, cause or belief. Your “why” is what drives your thoughts, words and actions.
This is exactly what D.D. Palmer did when he discovered Chiropractic. He started with the question “Why?”
“One question was always uppermost in my mind in my search for the cause of disease. I desired to know why one person was ailing and his associate, eating at the same table working in the same shop, at the same bench, was not. Why? What difference was there in the two persons that caused one to have pneumonia, catarrh, typhoid or rheumatism, while his partner, similarly situated, escaped? Why?” - D.D. Palmer
In essence, D.D. Palmer wanted to know: Why do people get sick and why are people healthy? A very intriguing question.
Obviously, D.D. Palmer was not the first person to ask this question. Medicine and its philosophy have been trying to answer this question for the last 2,000 years. What made D.D. Palmer unique was his approach to answering this question. He decided to look through a different philosophical lens.
Medicine, for the most part, has focused on the first half of the question: Why do people get sick?
To answer this question, medicine has sought out cures. What cures pneumonia? What cures catarrh? What cures typhoid? What cures rheumatism?
In essence, we can boil all these and similar questions down to one: What cures sickness? Answering this question has been the driving force behind medical science and intervention.
D.D. Palmer decided to focus on the second part of the question: why are people healthy?
This led D.D. Palmer on a quest for a cause. What causes someone not to get pneumonia? What causes someone not to get catarrh? What causes someone not to get typhoid? What causes someone not to get rheumatism?
In essence, we can boil these and similar questions down to one: What causes health? Answering this question has been the driving force behind chiropractic science and art.
Why should we focus on health and not sickness? The answer is: because health is the entity and the correct starting point. We don’t get sick, we lose health. Sickness is the absence of health, not the other way around. Similar principles are found throughout the natural world. Darkness is the absence of light, cold is the absence of heat, silence is the absence of sound, dryness is the absence of water, bland is the absence of flavor, numb is the absence of sense, etc.
If your purpose, cause or belief is to promote health, then your thoughts, words and actions will be better equipped to reach your final destination. Health is something we all can strive for, no matter the symptom, sickness or disease.
Chiropractic has a philosophy because Chiropractic is a philosophy.
- Dr. Jarek Esarco, DC, CACCP
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