Abstract
This essay argues that the practice ofmedicine is not a phronetic activity in theoriginal Aristotelian sense of that term. Jonsen andToulmin are two philosophers who have conflated thetechne of medicine with phronesis. Thisconflation ignores Aristotle's crucial distinctionbetween techne and phronesis and his useof the medical analogy. It is argued that medicalreasoning is similar to phronesis but does notexemplify it. Phronesis will not save thelife of medical ethics. The concept could be utilized as amoral prosthetic.
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NOTES AND REFERENCES
Jonsen AR, Toulmin S. The Abuse of Casuistry: A History of Moral 0052easoning. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989: 14, 42–46, 257.
Jaeger W. Aristotle's use of medicine as a model of method in his ethics. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1957; LXXVII: 54–61; Seidler MJ. The medical paradigm in Aristotelian ethics. The Thomist, 1978; 42: 401–433.
Jonsen, Toulmin. The Abuse of Casuistry: 69, 37, 42.
Beresford E. Can phronesis save the life of medical ethics? Theoretical Medicine, 1996; 17: 219.
Jaeger. Aristotle's use of medicine: 58.
Hutchinson DS. Ethics. In: Barnes J, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995: 206–207.
Beresford. Phronesis: 222.
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Irwin T, tr. Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1985: 1096a15–1097a10.
Ibid.: 1097a15.
Ibid.: 1094a1–15.
Ibid.: 1096b10–35.
Ibid.: 1097a10.
Hutchinson DS. Ethics: 205–206.
Ibid.: 206.
Aristotle. NE: 1140a10.
Ibid.: 1140a5.
Reeve CDC. Practices of Reason; Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992: 74–75.
Aristotle. Metaphysics. Ross WD, ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924: 1032a32-b10.
Aristotle. NE: 1094a10, 1144a5, 1145a10. Note that in 1094a10, Aristotle cites other examples of technai, e.g., boatbuilding and bridlemaking. In 1104a5 he cites navigation.
Reeve. Practices of Reason: 83. See also Dunne J. Aristotle after Gadamer: an analysis of the distinction between the concepts of phronesis and techne. Irish Philosophical Journal, 1985; 2: 108; Guthrie WKC. A History of Greek Philosophy, Vol. VI, Aristotle: An Encounter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981; reprint, 1993: 340; Hutchinson. Ethics: 206; Jaeger. Aristotle's use of medicine: 55; Seidler. The medical paradigm: 409–410.
Aristotle. NE: 1140a25–30.
Guthrie. Aristotle: 346.
Aristotle. NE: 1140b5.
Ibid.: 1140b20.
Hutchinson. Ethics: 207.
Ibid.: 213, 218. The moral virtues have been tabulated as means between the relevant vices. See Ross D. Aristotle. London: Methuen and Co., 1923; reprint 1974: 203.
Jonsen, Toulmin. The Abuse of Casuistry: 37.
Ibid.: 37.
Toulmin S. How medicine saved the life of ethics. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 1982; 25: 743.
Beresford. Phronesis: 210.
Jonsen, Toulmin. The Abuse of Casuistry: 42.
Beresford. Phronesis: 219–220.
Aristotle. NE: 1104a1–10. Cf. Jaeger. Aristotle's use of medicine: 56, 58.
Seidler. The medical paradigm: 415–416, 419, 427, 423.
Ibid.: 428.
Hutchinson. Ethics: 207–208. See also Aristotle. NE: 1140a25–30.
Guthrie. Aristotle: 348.
Jaeger. Aristotle's use of medicine: 58–60.
Dunne. Aristotle after Gadamer: 110–111.
Ibid.: 110.
Ibid.: 108–110. See Aristotle. NE: 1129a15–25, 1140b25.
Hutchinson DS. The Virtues of Aristotle. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986: 36–37.
Aristotle. NE: 1129a15.
Dunne. Aristotle after Gadamer: 112.
See Irwin T's Glossary to the NE, s.v. “state” at 426 and phronesis (intelligence) at
Hutchinson. Ethics: 214. See Aristotle. NE: 1143b25–30, 1144a10–35.
Hutchinson. The Virtues of Aristotle: 90–91.
Hutchinson. The Virtues of Aristotle: 37; Reeve. Practices of Reason: 95–96.
Aristotle. NE: 1102a5, 1102a15–20.
Dunne. Aristotle after Gadamer: 112.
Beresford. Phronesis: 222.
Hoeffler JM. Deathright: Culture, Medicine, Politics, and the Right to Die. San Francisco: Westview Press, 1994: 48.