Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An exploration of philosophical issues concerning, e.g.: causation, time, modality, or the self; the realism/nominalism or realism/idealism debate; relativism; the concept of truth; naturalized epistemology; global epistemological skepticism or perhaps a 'local' form of skepticism such as skepticism about induction or about sensory belief. May be repeated for credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

Selected Topics: History of Medicine

In this course, we evaluate beliefs and practices in medicine from the epistemological perspective of previous thinkers and cultures and leading into contemporary practice. Medicine is inescapably social and so we also address the influence of political, religious, and economic value systems on medical practices and beliefs.

Medical diagnosis over the course of history has typically relied on metaphysical beliefs about cause and effect: positing a cause of symptoms and predicting that a treatment will effectively alleviate them. Beliefs and understanding of biology and human physiology have also changed, shifted, and progressed over the period addressed in this course. Political status has historically determined whether a demographic group has been considered an appropriate object of medical research, with far-reaching epistemological consequences.

This course will be a historical survey, drawing on examples from approximately 2,500 years of texts in philosophy and medicine. In some cases, philosophy and medicine will be one and the same, while in others we work to draw out the relationship between medical practice and philosophical worldviews.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

• Build a narrative around the development of medical practice as it relates to philosophical views.
• Understand how shifting attitudes towards empiricism have influenced the culture of medical practice.
• Understand the respective and intertwined roles of scientific research and socioeconomic value systems as they have guided the principles and practice of medicine over the last 2,500 years.
• Identify and engage critically with recent and contemporary approaches to medical diagnosis and treatment that are subject to the same sorts of epistemic conditions and sociopolitical influences as the earlier examples we cover.
• Recognize the significance of these views in the context of contemporary medical research, political systems, and ambitions for progress in medicine.

This course is especially recommended to students interested in the health sciences, pre-medical studies, and public policy.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: