Philosophy of Medicine

This chapter views philosophy of medicine as a domain within philosophy of science as opposed to a province of bioethics. Thus, it first deals with the philosophical analysis of health, disease, and illness concepts and with the scientific nature of medicine. Relative to the second theme, it addresses questions relative to the causes and explanations of disease and the status of theories in biomedical science. A central concern here is the status and nature of proof in medicine and the relationship between theory and practice at the heart of evidence-based medicine. Finally, the chapter focuses on the specific problems raised by causal analysis and experimentation in medicine and on the nature of clinical reasoning.