The Philosophy of Medicine

5196 Words11 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Principles of medical ethics

The Philosophy of Medicine

Philosophy of Medicine?

In Arthur Caplan's 1992 paper entitled "Does The Philosophy of Medicine Exist?" he argues that if a philosophy of medicine existed it would be concerned with epistemological or metaphysical questions. Caplan states "The goal of the philosophy of medicine is epistemological" (71). Caplan adds "the goal of the inquiry is to understand what those in medicine think they know and why they think they know it" (71). In conversation with Professor Caplan he has recently stated that he still holds the conclusion of his paper: namely, that a philosophy of medicine does not currently exist.[1] It will be my general aim to look at the discussion that takes place in some of the analysis of the medical field with a focus on epistemology. Specifically it will be my intention to distinguish in some of the topical literature if the questions raised are rightly epistemological yet or in need of some clarification.

I accept Professor Caplan's stipulative definition that states that a field "must be well-integrated with other cognate inquiries and disciplines, have an established canon of key books, textbooks, anthologies and articles, and a set of distinctive and defining problems" (67). Epistemology meets all of these requirements. In attempts to assist medicine, authors from various quarters have offered analyses but confused what is and is not rightly epistemology. This confusion in turn blurs the distinction between philosophy in medicine and philosophy of medicine.[2] The resulting cloudiness may be an obstacle in the way of the development of the philosophy of medicine.

I believe the importance of merely recognizing whether we are asking questions about the thinkers or about that which may not be the thinker is a particularly relevant foundation to philosophy of medicine. In line with an element of Professor Caplan's definition of the philosophy of medicine (69), I will attempt to explicate the key concepts in philosophy in medicine of 'uncertainty' and 'underdetermination.'

Epistemology

Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with theories of knowledge. Its study focuses around the nature, scope, and basis of knowledge, and the reliability of claims to knowledge. Epistemology must often take up debates over where and how knowledge is obtained, and the role of reason.[3] The tools of epistemologists consist of, but are not limited to, truth-bearers, truth-makers, truth-conditions, sentences, propositions, beliefs, criteria, justification, foundations, certainty, determination, coherence, usefulness,and correspondence. All these terms carry different weight and notions within individual epistemological theories, and need not be fully unpacked to serve their purpose in this investigation.

Show More
Related

  • Influences of Allen Ginsberg's Work

    536 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ginsberg’s mother often made up bedtime stories with strong Communist ideas like: 'The good king rode forth from his castle and, saw the suffering workers and healed them.'" Ginsberg was equally critical of his father. "My father would go around the house," Allen once said, "either reciting Emily Dickinson and Longfellow under his breath or attacking T. S. Eliot for...

    Read More

  • Domestic Surveillance Pros And Cons

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    The aftereffects of the September 11, 2001 attacks led to Congress passing sweeping legislation to improve the United States’ counterterrorism efforts. An example of a policy passed was Domestic Surveillance, which is the act of the government spying on citizens. This is an important issue because many people believe that Domestic Surveillance is unconstitutional and an invasion of privacy, while others believe that the government should do whatever is possible in order to keep the citizens safe. One act of Domestic Surveillance, the tracking of our phone calls, is constitutional because it helps fight terrorism, warns us against potential threats, and gives US citizens a feeling of security.

    Read More

  • Tuberculosis Essay

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MT) is a slender, rod-shaped, aerobic bacillus which causes tuberculosis. Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborn infection which is transmitted via inhaling droplet nuclei circulating in the air. These droplets are expelled from the respiratory secretion of people who have active TB through coughing, sneezing, and talking (Porth, 2011). Some bacilli stay in the upper airway and are swept out by mucus-secreting goblet cells and cilia on the surface of the airway. Others will escape from this protective mechanism to travel and settle down at alveoli (Porth, 2011). Local inflammatory reaction occurs and macrophages are cells that act as next line defense mechanism to fight with mycobacteria. First they engulf micobacteria, try to reduce their strength and ability, and kill them. In the same way they send antigen to helper T lymphocytes to initiate a cell-mediated immune response (Knechel, 2009). The infected macrophages will send produced cytokines and enzymes to breakdown mycobacteria’s protein. It is the released cytokines that attract T ly...

    Read More

  • Imperfect Science By Atul Gawande

    1199 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his encounter with a young boy, Lee Tran, who suffered from a tumor compressing his airway which obstructed his ability to breathe, Gawande discusses the sheer luck that resulted in Lee’s “tumor [shifting] rightward, [allowing] airways to both lungs to open up,” as the conflicted doctors did not pursue the safest course of treatment (Gawande 6). This anecdote validates the fact that often doctors cannot foresee the optimal course of action through the smoke of crisis and relied on essentially random chance to save the young boy’s life. Gawande sums up this experience as he admits that while there is science in the profession, there also exists “habit, intuition, and sometimes plain old guessing” (Gawande 7) - rendering the science imperfect. These qualities - habit, intuition, and “plain old guessing” are not empirical qualities proven through the scientific method but rather unquantifiable, refuting the stereotypes conferred by the myth of an infallible science and revealing the medicine is ultimately a human

    Read More

  • Hippocratic Medicine

    759 Words  | 2 Pages

    This chapter will analyze the Hippocratic medicine using especially the study of the Hippocratic Corpus. In the texts of the Hippocratic Corpus, medicine becomes pragmatic and secular, with theories to explain natural causes of diseases and discussions about medical practices and professional ethic. The chapter will discuss fundamental theoretical and ethical changes in medicine after Hippocrates.

    Read More

  • US Government Monitoring Its Citizens

    1413 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since the terrorist attacks at Sept. 11, 2001, the surveillance issue often has turned away the table in the debate of individual privacy or counterterrorism. By passing the Patriot Act, Congress gave President Bush an immense law enforcement authority to boost U.S's counterterrorism, and the President used his enlarged powers to forward specific programs in order to reduce the threat of terrorism and defend the country’s safety.

    Read More

  • Midsummer Night’s Dream: The Power of Love

    1250 Words  | 3 Pages

    Love is a powerful emotion, capable of turning reasonable people into fools. Out of love, ridiculous emotions arise, like jealousy and desperation. Love can shield us from the truth, narrowing a perspective to solely what the lover wants to see. Though beautiful and inspiring when requited, a love unreturned can be devastating and maddening. In his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare comically explores the flaws and suffering of lovers. Four young Athenians: Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena, are confronted by love’s challenge, one that becomes increasingly difficult with the interference of the fairy world. Through specific word choice and word order, a struggle between lovers is revealed throughout the play. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses descriptive diction to emphasize the impact love has on reality and one’s own rationality, and how society’s desperate pursuit to find love can turn even strong individuals into fools.

    Read More

  • Privacy Essay

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    In particular The NSA or National Security Agency was reported to collect massive amounts of data from the citizens of the United States and many other foreign countries. This data was not obtained with the permission of the people but obtained in secrecy and the majority of the data that was collected was “phone metadata, or information about who you call, when you called them, where you called them, what kind of carrier you were using, and more” (Kelly 2). With this kind of information being obtained people’s lives can be perceived by ...

    Read More

  • Personal Privacy and the Government

    1395 Words  | 3 Pages

    The United States government is up to its ears in the personal information it has collected from its citizens. Americans are becoming increasingly “aware of these slowly eroding walls of privacy,”(Hirsh) and more than half polled admit concern “about the overall accumulation of personal information about them “by […] law enforcement, government, […] and other groups,” though “they accept it as an unavoidable modern phenomenon” (Hirsh). The question is, how far is too far to trust the government with the collection, proper storage, and usage of this information? Studies show that “Americans believe that business, government, social-media sites, and other groups are accessing their most personal information without their consent” (Hirsh). People should be given the ability to admit or deny access to their personal information. The government does not have a right to use whatever information it wants for any purpose it wishes. Michael Hayden, once the NSA director for seven years, says, “Even I recognize that it's one thing for Google to know too much, because they aren't putting me in jail. It's another thing for government, because they can coerce me” (Hirsh). The United States government's ability to collect information about its citizens and residents should be restricted by what kind of information it can take, how it can acquire it, and what it can use it for.

    Read More

  • If A Tree Falls in the Philosophical Forest, Someone Managed to Undermine Descartes Ambitions for Epistemology

    2267 Words  | 5 Pages

    First of all, I demonstrate that epistemology is the study of all that encompasses knowledge. Furthermore, I support the traditional epistemological concept of justified true belief by arguing that this model is largely relied on in the expectations of current empirical data.

    Read More

  • Linda Zagzebski: A Virtue Based Definition of Knowledge

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    How we approach the question of knowledge is pivotal. If the definition of knowledge is a necessary truth, then we should aim for a real definition for theoretical and practical knowledge. Methodology examines the purpose for the definition and how we arrived to it. The reader is now aware of the various ways to dissect what knowledge is. This entails the possibility of knowledge being a set of truths; from which it follows that one cannot possibly give a single definition. The definition given must therefore satisfy certain desiderata , while being strong enough to demonstrate clarity without losing the reader. If we base our definition on every counter-example that disproves our original definition then it becomes ad hoc. This is the case for our current defini...

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Bio-Medical Model Of Mental Health

    1466 Words  | 3 Pages

    The model also rests upon a limited view of knowledge and it subjects many aspects of life to medical measurements. The bio-medical model assumes that medical knowledge is scientific and objective and that those who possess the knowledge are able to understand the human body, the cause of an illness and the benefits of intervention. However, it could be argued that members of the medical profession have a vested interest in promoting an overly medical view of life. With the backing of drug companies and limited time available for consultation, medics often rely on using drugs to treat rather than concentrate upon promoting better health and preventing illness (Michael and Viveash,

    Read More

  • Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream Analysis

    1680 Words  | 4 Pages

    In William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he strides to portray the tides of love! But even for Shakespeare, It’s quite hard to grasp the understanding of love, for there is always arising complications, that get in the way of lustful love; Throughout the play, Shakespeare, undermines the notion that true love ever existed.

    Read More

  • Epistemology: Reflecting on Knowledge

    1213 Words  | 3 Pages

    Epistemology helped me investigate the procedure I went through for crafting the essays. I referred to books, online articles, journal and other publications to understand and justify the concepts and information. It helped me distinguish between what is false, what is true across diverse contexts, and to decide the boundaries of knowledge based on how that knowledge is acquired. I also evaluated the truthfulness of my beliefs and personal opinion. I am actuated by understanding the sources of knowledge and also the quality of the resulting knowledge – knowing its dimensions and limitations.

    Read More

  • My Philosophy of Life: Metaphysics

    1840 Words  | 4 Pages

    Epistemology, also known as theory of knowledge is the part of philosophy that discusses the nature and scope of knowledge. Some questions that study the nature of knowledge could be, Have you ever thought about how we know things? What does it mean for someone to know something? How much can we possibly know? How do you know that 2 + 2 = 4, or that the square root of 144 is 12? Do we know something from reason or from di...

    Read More

More about The Philosophy of Medicine

Open Document