Perspectives in Biology and Medicine

Philosophy of medicine cannot be precisely defined because neither philosophy nor medicine can be precisely defined. Furthermore, philosophers of medicine do not constitute a well-defined class because they come not only from the fields of philosophy and medicine, but also from various other disciplines. Hence, I argue for a broad conception of philosophy of medicine that includes philosophical reflection on any matter considered to belong to medicine. A brief survey of the philosophy of medicine literature supports this view. Of the 625 articles surveyed for the years 1997–2006, nearly three-quarters dealt with matters of ethics, and of the 36 books surveyed, nearly 60% were primarily on ethics. Nonetheless, articles and books focusing on all other major branches of philosophy—metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, and logic—were also published. Moreover, many of the articles, even those primarily on ethics, dealt in significant ways with more than one branch of philosophy. I conclude that philosophy of medicine includes all sorts of philosophical reflection on medicine but is currently dominated by ethics. Given the stated purpose of journals and book series devoted to philosophy and medicine, this leaves ample room to expand other philosophical reflection on medicine.