Editing Doctrine of signatures (section)

== Scientific, spiritual, and social context ==
Signatures are often described as [[Post hoc ergo propter hoc|post hoc attributions]] and [[mnemonics]] used to remember the properties of a plant rather than the reason it was originally used.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal |last=Bennett |first=Bradley C. |date=2007-09-01 |title=Doctrine of Signatures: An explanation of medicinal plant discovery or Dissemination of knowledge? |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1663/0013-0001(2007)61%5B246:DOSAEO%5D2.0.CO;2 |journal=Economic Botany |language=en |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages=246–255 |doi=10.1663/0013-0001(2007)61[246:DOSAEO]2.0.CO;2 |issn=1874-9364|url-access=subscription }}</ref> There is no scientific or historical evidence that plant shapes and colors have aided in the discovery of their medical uses.<ref name=":02" />

In Europe, the idea of doctrine of signatures was linked with Christian beliefs.<ref name=":02" /> However, similar theories were created within black magic with [[sympathetic magic]].<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last1=Dafni |first1=Amots |last2=Lev |first2=E. |date=2002-12-01 |title=The doctrine of signatures in present-day Israel |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1663/0013-0001(2002)056%5B0328:TDOSIP%5D2.0.CO;2 |journal=Economic Botany |language=en |volume=56 |issue=4 |pages=328–334 |doi=10.1663/0013-0001(2002)056[0328:TDOSIP]2.0.CO;2 |issn=1874-9364|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Similar theories have been observed all over the world in ancient Egypt, China, pre-Columbian America, and the Middle East.<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":02" /> This can also explain how varied, and at times contradictory, applications of the doctrine can be because traditional botany is subject to [[optimal foraging theory]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last1=Gaoue |first1=Orou G. |last2=Coe |first2=Michael A. |last3=Bond |first3=Matthew |last4=Hart |first4=Georgia |last5=Seyler |first5=Barnabas C. |last6=McMillen |first6=Heather |date=2017 |title=Theories and Major Hypotheses in Ethnobotany |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45171690 |journal=Economic Botany |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=269–287 |doi=10.1007/s12231-017-9389-8 |jstor=45171690 |bibcode=2017EcBot..71..269G |issn=0013-0001|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Remedies would, in many cases, be based on the environmental availability of that resource rather than its objective effectiveness.<ref name=":5" />

Some sociologists frame the doctrine of signatures as a type of "enchantment", the idea that it is not just what one observes but how they observe it, and it was a device used to elevate a group of "elite" observers who could interpret the world with more accuracy.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal |last=Findlen |first=Paula |date=1995 |title=Review of Culture and Enchantment |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/236481 |journal=Isis |volume=86 |issue=1 |pages=146–147 |doi=10.1086/357147 |jstor=236481 |issn=0021-1753|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In this context, the elite observers would be those that, for example, notice that lungwort's leaves look like lung tissue rather than positing that the dark red flowers could look like blood clots or the pink petals like irritated skin.<ref name=":10" /> The idea being that within many descriptors, the "correct" one that links to the signature could only be found by someone within this elite group.<ref name=":10" />

It is important to note similar yet conflicting theories like the theory of opposites, where Galen supposed that a cold and wet thing could be used to treat an imbalance in a hot and dry organ.<ref>{{Citation |last=Hankinson |first=R. J. |title=20 Galen on Hippocratic Physics |date=2016-01-01 |work=Ancient Concepts of the Hippocratic |volume=46 |pages=421–443 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004307407/B9789004307407_022.xml |access-date=2025-04-21 |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/9789004307407_022 |pmid=26731820 |isbn=978-90-04-30740-7|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Hypotheses like these and the questions they posed, regardless of the validity of the hypotheses themselves, inspired scientific investigations into the safety and usefulness of many plant-based remedies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hill |first=Albert F. |date=1950 |title=Review of Drugs from Plants. Sigma Introduction to Science, 10 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2811031 |journal=The Quarterly Review of Biology |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=228 |doi=10.1086/397615 |jstor=2811031 |issn=0033-5770|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=A World of Similarity: The Doctrine of Signatures and its application in medicinal plant identification |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269688037 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230201074900/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269688037_A_World_of_Similarity_The_Doctrine_of_Signatures_and_its_application_in_medicinal_plant_identification |archive-date=2023-02-01 |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=ResearchGate |language=en}}</ref>