Rethinking the nature of medicine: limits of the inquiry thesis through the case of African traditional medicine

This paper critically evaluates Alex Broadbent's Inquiry Thesis, which defines medicine by the core competencies of prediction and understanding. While the thesis seeks to avoid parochialism by identifying features that could apply across traditions, its applicability falters when examined against African traditional medicine (ATM). Using ATM as a test case, this paper demonstrates that legitimate medical systems can operate coherently and enjoy broad social legitimacy without consistently exercising prediction or understanding in Broadbent's sense. This challenges the Inquiry Thesis both as a general account of medicine and as an inclusive framework. Accordingly, this paper tentatively advances a Refined Curative Thesis (RCT), which shifts the unifying criterion from competencies to aims: medicine is defined as the organized, socially recognized effort to restore or maintain health through interventions directed at beneficial change. RCT accommodates epistemic diversity, preserves conceptual discipline, and avoids collapsing into unstructured pluralism. By centring the curative aim, this revised account offers a more inclusive, philosophically robust, and culturally sensitive definition of medicine. The analysis deepens philosophical understanding of medicine while also bearing practical significance for global health policy, intercultural dialogue, and the recognition of diverse medical systems.