Philosophy and Medicine

4 credits · Undergraduate

We will consider the following questions: Is medicine a science? What are its aims? How are the central concepts of "health" and "disease" defined? What is meant by the charge that there is an "overmedication of everyday life" in our society and is that charge justified? What is "medical reductionism" and what are its limits? What are the assumptions behind "specialistic" and holistic"approaches to medicine and which of these two approaches serves better the aims of medicine? What is the proper place of medicine in the social, legal, and moral contexts?