Medical Ethics: Historic Texts

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Open to Philosophy graduate students as well as Law, Medicine, and upper undergraduate students, this seminar will involve a close reading (in English translation, but with some texts available in original languages) of seminal works from antiquity through to the mid-20th century that have shaped thinking about medical ethics. We will concentrate on Western works, including Hippocrates, Plato, Scribonius Largus, Isaac Israeli, Ali al-Ruhawi, Maimonides, Paracelsus, John Gregory, Thomas Percival, Worthington Hooker, William Osler, Richard Cabot, Francis Peabody, and various medical oaths and codes of the 20th century. We will also read several non-Western texts: The Oath of Initiation of the Caraka Samhita and the Chinese text known as “The Five Commandments and Ten Requirements.” The class will be conducted in a modified seminar style, with the instructor providing an introduction and then leading a discussion of the texts by the students. Our interdisciplinary exchange will exemplify and provide a context for the nature of the field of bioethics.