"Chinese medicine, like many other Chinese sciences, defines data on the basis of the inductive and synthetic mode of cognition. Inductivity corresponds to a logical link between two effective positions existing at the same time in different places in space. (Conversely, causality is the logical link between two effective positions given at different times at the same place in space.) In other words, effects based on on positions that are separate in space yet simultaneous in time are mutually inductive and thus are called inductive effects. In Western science prior to the development of electrodynamics and nuclear physics (which are founded essentially on inductivity), the inductive nexus was limited to subordinate uses in protosciences such as astrology. Now Western man, as a consequence of two thousand years of intellectual tradition, persists in the habit of making causal connections first and inductive links, if at all, only as an afterthought. This habit must still be considered the biggest obstacle to an adequate appreciation of Chinese science in general and Chinese medicine in particular. Given such different cognitive bases, many of the apparent similarities between traditional Chinese and European science which attract the attention of positivists turn out to be spurious. ... In therapeutic disciplines such as acupuncture, moxibustion, or massage, three kinds of sensitive points are of interest. By distinguishing among them, we incidentally catch a glimpse of the evolutive stages of foraminology. the first kind are the foramina ad hoc. In Chinese these are called ah-shih-hsüeh because the patient exclaims "oh yes!" (ah shih) when one of these foramina is pressed in exploratory palpation. These ad hoc points, without scientific names or precise topology, are partly identical with the "knots" that masseurs of all civilizations work to dispel."