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The Fragility of Philosophy of Medicine

Essentialism, Wittgenstein and Family Resemblances

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Lucien Karhausen

    1. DG XII and DG V, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium

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  • Offers an original approach to philosophy of medicine, based on logic and philosophy of sciences
  • Avoids armchair philosophy on medicine
  • Argues in favor of applied philosophy of medicine

Part of the book series: Philosophy and Medicine (PHME, volume 147)

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Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. A Certain Philosophical Context

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 1-4

  3. Wittgenstein’s Toolbox

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 5-14

  4. Medicine

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 15-19

  5. Diseases, Injuries, and Disabilities

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 21-42

  6. Mental Disorders

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 43-71

  7. Unexplained Physical Symptoms and Functional Disorders

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 73-80

  8. Health

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 81-88

  9. Causality

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 89-109

  10. Medical Explanation

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 111-130

  11. The Origin and Foundation of Medicine

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 131-148

  12. Functions, Malfunctions, and Teleology

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 149-157

  13. Treatment, Placebos and Nocebos

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 159-171

  14. Is Medical Grammar Counterfactual?

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 173-178

  15. The Philosophy of Medicine Versus Medicine

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 179-189

  16. To Conclude

    • Lucien Karhausen
    Pages 191-192

  17. Back Matter

    Pages 193-214
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Keywords

About this book

This book about philosophy of medicine bestows a bottom-up and not a top-down approach. It starts from clinical medicine and epidemiology, analyzing their interrelations with philosophical instruments. The book criticizes the constant search for generalities and the essentialism that too often characterizes this discipline, which results in philosophers of medicine dialoguing with each other without direct contact with medical science. In the light of Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy, this book proposes an approach to the philosophy of medicine based on the quorum of language, what Wittgenstein calls family resemblances. In this way the author establishes a philosophy of medicine that is closely related to the medical clinic and to public health and as such avoids armchair philosophy. “Don’t think, but look", wrote Wittgenstein.

Authors and Affiliations

  • DG XII and DG V, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium

    Lucien Karhausen

About the author

Lucien Karhausen graduated in medicine, from Brussels' Free University. he subsequently trained for five years in internal medicine at Memorial Hospital, Cornell Medical school in New York. Furthermore, he took a master's degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. Back in Belgium, he organized a a course on epidemiology for WHO's European Office . He was engaged by the European Commission in a radiation protection programme and became involved in the development of European medical research. He wrote several books in French on philosophical aspects of medicine.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Fragility of Philosophy of Medicine

  • Book Subtitle: Essentialism, Wittgenstein and Family Resemblances

  • Authors: Lucien Karhausen

  • Series Title: Philosophy and Medicine

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41633-0

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-41632-3Published: 21 September 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-41635-4Due: 22 October 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-41633-0Published: 20 September 2023

  • Series ISSN: 0376-7418

  • Series E-ISSN: 2215-0080

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIV, 214

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Philosophy, general

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