Premises & Self-Understanding

The premises of homeopathy

Hahnemann describes the main features of this the first seven paragraphs of his Organon der Heilkunst. (Hahnemann, 2017, based on the 6th edition by Richard Haehl 1921)[1] . As was customary in such treatises at the time, the Organon is written in paragraphs and, figuratively speaking, follows the structure of a pyramid. The first paragraphs form the top and define the main features of the entire therapy. The premises mentioned in §§ 1 - 7 are systematically developed further in the other sections of the Organon and provided with detailed practical instructions. To gain a first impression, it is useful to read these first paragraphs in one go and analyse them epistemologically.

Organon §1

"The only and highest profession of the doctor is to make sick people well, which is called healing."

Organon §2

"The highest ideal of healing is the gentle, lasting restoration of health and the elevation and destruction of the disease in its entirety by the shortest, most reliable and most undiscriminating route, according to clearly recognisable reasons."

Organon §3

"If the physician clearly recognises what is to be cured in each individual case of disease (knowledge of the disease, indication), if he clearly recognises what is curative in the medicines, i.e. he sees clearly what is curative in the remedies, i.e. in each remedy in particular (knowledge of the medicinal powers), and he knows for clear reasons how to adapt the curative properties of the remedies to what he has undoubtedly recognised as pathological in the patient, so that recovery must take place, adapting them both with regard to the appropriateness of the most suitable remedy for the case according to its mode of action (choice of remedy, indication), and with regard to the exact preparation and quantity required (correct administration) and the appropriate repetition time of the administration: - Finally, if he knows the obstacles to recovery in each case and knows how to remove them so that the preparation is permanent, he knows how to act expediently and thoroughly and is a true healing artist."

Organon §4

"He is also a health-preserver if he knows the things that disturb health and cause and maintain illness and knows how to remove them from healthy people."

Organon §5

"The data of the most probable cause of the acute disease, as well as the most significant moments from the entire history of the protracted illness, serve the physician as an aid to healing, in order to find its root cause, which is usually based on a chronic miasm[2] , taking into consideration the recognisable physical constitution of the patient (especially of the protracted patient), his leisurely and mental character, his occupations, his mode of life and habits, his civil and domestic circumstances, his age and sexual function, etc., etc.etc. are to be taken into consideration."

Organon § 6

"The unprejudiced observer, - knowing the futility of supersensible reasonings which cannot be proved by experience, - perceives, even if he is the most acute, nothing in every single disease but changes in the state of the body and soul which are externally recognisable by the senses, signs of disease, coincidences, symptoms, that is, deviations from the healthy, former state of the now sick person, which he himself feels, which those around him perceive in him, and which the physician observes in him. All these perceptible signs represent the disease in its entirety, that is, together they form the true and only conceivable form of the disease"

Organon § 7

"Now, as nothing else can be perceived in a disease from which no cause (causa occasionalis) can be removed which apparently induces or maintains it, except the signs of the disease, so, with regard to any miasm and with regard to the secondary circumstances (§ 5.), it must also be only the symptoms by which the disease demands the remedy suitable for its aid and can point to the same - so the totality of its symptoms, this outwardly reflected picture of the inner nature of the disease, i.e., the suffering of the vital force, must be the most important or the only thing by which the disease can reveal which remedy it needs - the only thing which can determine the choice of the most appropriate remedy. i.e. the suffering of the vital force, must be the main or only thing by which the disease can indicate which remedy it needs, - the only thing that can determine the choice of the most appropriate remedy - so, in a word, the totality of the symptoms must be the main, indeed the only thing for the healer to recognise in every case of disease and to remove through his art, so that the disease is cured and transformed into health."

Requirements of the Organon from an Epistemological Perspective

As can be seen from the explanations in its 200-year-old, altogether somewhat habit-forming "heavy and gnarled" language and writing style, the practice of homeopathy is based on several interlinked guidelines. From an epistemological perspective, the Organon defines in this section:

The ethical basis of every medical action as an aid to healing (§1)
Ideally, this should enable the restoration of health in the shortest and most reliable way possible, in the most sustainable and gentle manner possible, and must be based on rational principles (§2)
The systematic approach, from diagnosis to therapy, whereby the individualised approach to the individual patient, the precise knowledge of drug reactions and the individual monitoring in the therapy process with the necessary adjustments to the medication and also the holistic view of individual obstacles to therapy are emphasised (§3).
The implication of a salutogenetic approach in treatment (§4)
The need for comprehensive data exploration which, in addition to acute and chronic symptoms, also includes precise research into possible infections with chronic courses, constitutional characteristics, psychosomatic aspects and bio-psycho-social influencing factors (§5).
The primarily phenomenological method of analysing all case data, including an external medical history, with a gestalt-theoretical approach, which, in addition to symptoms, also records all characteristics of disturbed regulation as well as individual events in connection with the complaints (§6).
The need to orientate diagnostics and medicinal therapy towards a holistic way of thinking. This includes systematically analysing all signs and symptoms of the individual case as representatives of the disorder according to the specifications of a comprehensive data exploration (§5) as the basis for an individual drug therapy.

Conclusions for Diagnostics and Therapy

To summarise, the overarching conclusions on diagnostics and therapy can be derived from this, which are dealt with in the further paragraphs of the Organon:

Treatment mandate and minimally invasive, gentle approach as an ethical basis
Primarily phenomenological diagnosis of the entire case
Individualisation of the disease process
Medicinal diagnosis according to the Simile-concept (Principle of Similars)
Prescription of individual remedies
Observe all hygiene rules to maintain health, in the sense of salutogenesis
Process analysis of the course of the disease with re-evaluation (later systematically expanded by Constantin Hering)

These elements have been part of the basic practical understanding of homeopathy since it was founded by Samuel Hahnemann. They were supplemented by two further aspects in the course of the methodological development of the first decade of homeopathy's history:

Preparation of medicines by potentisation, i.e. the breakdown of medicinal effects by dilution and swirling by shaking, according to a specially developed method
The concept of the adequate dose, an application of controlled single doses based on the individual findings according to the principle "as little as possible, as much as necessary"

The Self-Understanding of Homeopathy

The premises of homeopathy result in the concept of an independent and empirically based holistic drug therapy with a differentiated and complex drug prescription and evaluation concept. In his therapeutic guide written for this purpose, the Organon of the Art of Healing, Hahnemann developed in six editions from 1810 to 1842 (Hahnemann, 2003) a dedicated guide to therapeutic practice, which can be divided into several sections with the following focal points to provide a simplified overview:

Basic principles and ethics of medical duties (§1, §2, §17)
Definition and principles of drug treatment (§§ 19-34)
Diagnostic principles of drug selection (§§ 83-104)
Basic features of systematic drug trials (§§ 105-120) and their implementation (§§ 121-142)
Evaluation concept for drug therapy (§§ 143-145)
Empirical concepts of clinical verification (§§ 146-171)
Therapeutic specialities in certain treatment situations (§§ 172-244)
Concept for case progress analyses and therapy rules (§§ 245-263)
Manufacturing and preparation principles for medicinal products (§§ 264-271)
Prescription rules and revenue regulations (§§ 272-285)

Hahnemann described the results of empirical research primarily in the form of a systematic methodology and thus made the homeopathic principle practicable as medical drug therapy for the first time . [3]

However, Hahnemann established the defined basic assumptions of homeopathy axiomatically. In doing so, he did not pay much attention to the scientific justifications of his time; he considered much of it to be "inventions" (Org. §28) and rather represented a purely empirical research standpoint.

From a medical-historical perspective, this attitude is easy to understand. From today's perspective, Hahnemann's era can be understood as a phase of pre-scientific theorising. While analogies based on the empirical concept of causality[4] by David Hume (1711-1776) were established as conclusions of probability, many thought structures of scientific procedures were still rooted in scholasticism[5].

The differential methodology of deductive and inductive logic, which formed the basis of today's philosophy of science, was first developed by Stuart Mill[6] in the middle of the 19th century.

During the Napoleonic era (1792-1815), medicine in particular was characterised by a multitude of different, changing ideas with inconsistent and contradictory theories. In addition, neither the methodology nor the vocabulary for a complex holistic approach, as is possible today, were available.

Hahnemann's theoretical arguments on the questions of health and disease can therefore be seen as a challenge for a period of change in scientific thinking in medicine in his day. Interestingly, the premises of homeopathy still pose a scientific challenge today, albeit for different reasons, as will be explained below.

To begin with, the working hypothesis can be made that the representatives of homeopathy can treat successfully as long as they refer specifically to the instructions of the Organon in their practical application. However, on this basis alone, so to speak "by itself", as has been repeatedly attempted, nothing significant can be contributed to the scientific development of homeopathy and the understanding of the methodology

For this reason, too, the dispute about the premises of homeopathy has been primarily paradigmatic since its first description and in every subsequent epoch.

The basic assumptions of homeopathy are briefly summarised below and analysed from an epistemological perspective. The paradigmatic points of contention are emphasised separately, their underlying assumptions discussed and their conclusions differentiated. The aim is to create a basis for constructive discourse and meaningful research development.

[1] The paragraphs of the Organon (the first edition was published in 1810) were partly smoothed out by the author in order to render them in a more comprehensible and contemporary language.

[2] Since antiquity, the term miasm has meant a transmissible disease. Hahnemann used the term in the sense of contagion, which was common in the pre-microbiological era of his time as a synonym for infection.

[3] For an in-depth and further study of these principles, see the new edition of the Organon with systematics and glossary by Josef M. Schmidt (Hahnemann, 2003) , the Organon Commentary by Matthias Wischner (Wischner, 2011) and the Organon Synopsis for the historical analysis of the development of the Organon by Luft & Wischner (Hahnemann, 2001) .

[4] If B is regularly followed by A, A can be described as the cause of B - as an effect. The perpetual and reliable succession of effect B on cause A forms the basis, whereby epistemologically only the repeatability of experiment A makes it the cause of effect B. (Hume, 1978)

[5] Historical Dictionary of Switzerland online: https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/011414/2012-11-21 (Imbach, 2012)

[6] System der deduktiven und inductiven Logik: Eine Darlegung der Prinzipien wissenschaftlicher Forschung, insbesondere der Naturforschung (Mill, 1868). Online: http://www.zeno.org/Philosophie/M/Mill,+John+Stuart/System+der+deduktiven+und+induktiven+Logik

Sources and references

Hahnemann, S. (2001). Organon-Synopse: Die 6 Auflagen von 1810 - 1842 im Überblick (B. Luft & M. Wischner, Eds.). Haug.
Hahnemann, S. (2003). Organon der Heilkunst: Aude sapere (J. M. Schmidt, Ed.; 1st ed.). Elsevier, Urban & Fischer.
Hahnemann, S. (2017). Organon der Heilkunst (6th ed.). Hahnemann Institut für homöopathische Dokumentation. https://archive.org/details/organon-der-heilkunst
Hume, D. (1978). A treatise of human nature (P. H. Nidditch, Ed.; 2nd ed.). Oxford, United Kingdom: Clarendon Press; New York, United States : Oxford University Press. https://archive.org/details/treatiseofhumann0000hume_b5g6
Imbach, R. (2012). Scholastik. In Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (HLS). https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/011414/2012-11-21/
Mill, J. S. (1868). System der deduktiven und inductiven Logik: Eine Darlegung der Prinzipien wissenschaftlicher Forschung, insbesondere der Naturforschung. http://www.zeno.org/nid/20009226567
Wischner, M. (2011). Organon-Kommentar: Eine Einführung in Samuel Hahnemanns Organon der Heilkunst; mit einem Glossar zeitgenössischer Begriffe (2nd revised ed.). KVC Verl.

Authors: glt | Rev.: gbh, mnr, sfm, smi | Ed.: pz | Last modified Apr. 10, 2025