Abstract

There is ample evidence that doctors in the United States and elsewhere are experiencing a professional crisis. The roots of this professional crisis are difficult to pinpoint, but it involves an inability on the part of physicians to find meaning in their work. Traditionally, doctors could rely on their membership in the profession of medicine to lend a sense of meaning to their professional lives. However, many commentators have questioned the viability of the medical profession. ;If being a doctor is a meaningful activity, then this meaning begs for an explanation and for a philosophical foundation. Since the profession of medicine no longer seems to provide such a foundation, I propose an alternative concept: the practice of medicine. As I use it, this latter concept is derived from the work of Alasdair MacIntyre. ;Using a variety of sources, including historical, sociological and philosophical works, I analyze and develop idea of medicine as a practice. Ultimately, I conclude that practices offer their members the possibility of meaning to the extent that a practitioner cares about his or her conception of excellence within the practice. Thus medicine, conceived as a practice, can offer physicians the possibility of finding meaning in doctoring. I end with a reinterpretation of the concept of professions as institutions that mediate the relationship between practices and the public