Health, Disease, and Illness: Concepts in Medicine
About this ebook
Historically one can see that health, disease, and illness are concepts that have been ever fluid. Modern science, sociology, philosophy, even society—among other factors—constantly have these issues under microscopes, learning more, defining and redefining ever more exactly. Yet often that scrutiny, instead of leading toward hard answers, only leads to more questions. Health, Disease, and Illness brings together a sterling list of classic and contemporary thinkers to examine the history, state, and future of ever-changing "concepts" in medicine.
Divided into four parts—Historical Discussions; Characterizing Health, Disease, and Illness; Clinical Applications of Health and Disease; and Normalcy, Genetic Disease, and Enhancement: The Future of the Concepts of Health and Disease—the reader can see the evolutionary arc of medical concepts from the Greek physician Galen of Pergamum (ca. 150 ce) who proposed that "the best doctor is also a philosopher," to contemporary discussions of the genome and morality. The editors have recognized a crucial need for a deeper integration of medicine and philosophy with each other, particularly in an age of dynamically changing medical science—and what it means, medically, philosophically, to be human.
About the author
Arthur L. Caplan is Emmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics, and director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.
James J. McCartney is associate professor in the department of philosophy at Villanova University, an associate fellow at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, and an adjunct professor at the Villanova University School of Law.
Dominic A. Sisti is a researcher at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, associate ethicist at Holy Redeemer Health System, and adjunct instructor at Villanova University.
