Health and disease: two philosophical perspectives.

Abstract

Is there a philosopher's approach to the concepts of health and disease? Are there any particularly philosophical concepts concerning medical affairs? What point could there be in the existence of such concepts? These questions seem to be well motivated by the title of this paper. What use can a scholarly and humanistic discipline be to a rapidly expanding science such as medicine? Let us first notice that the relation between medicine and philosophy is not something that has recently emerged. Many of the ancient and mediaeval doctors were also philosophers. The ideas of Plato and Aristotle deeply influenced medical thinking until the 17th century. Many of the most prominent medical theorists of later times, let us just mention Boerhaave, Cullen, and Bernard, had a deep philosophical training and made use of such insights in their theoretical constructions. It is true, however, that western medicine of the 20th century has lost some of its philosophical background or, more correctly, it has once and for all chosen one philosophical standpoint, viz, extreme empiricism, and then tried to forget that there are any alternatives to it. It has taken its own metaphysics as self evident and then refused to believe that there is any metaphysics left. As a consequence, the means of communication between physicians and philosophers, or between physicians and humanists in general, have become more and more rare and fragile. But what has been lost and what can philosophy offer? I cannot deal with this question in its generality. Let me instead limit my focus to the initial questions posed in this paper and try to assess what is peculiar to the philosopher's analysis of single medical notions such as health and disease.