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A ristotle, H ume and the goals of medicine
Author(s) -
Misselbrook David
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of evaluation in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.737
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2753
pISSN - 1356-1294
DOI - 10.1111/jep.12371
Subject(s) - conceptualization , flourishing , value (mathematics) , health care , medicine , psychology , epistemology , engineering ethics , computer science , philosophy , social psychology , political science , artificial intelligence , law , engineering , machine learning
Whilst medicine is now an immense global industry clinicians often appear unclear as to its goals. This paper uses two philosophical steps to clarify our conceptualization of health and thus our goals for healthcare. Firstly, clinicians need to understand the significance of Hume's fact / value distinction in medicine, for medicine relies on both facts and values. Secondly clinicians need a better specified definition of ‘health’ to use as a goal for healthcare. Aristotle's model of human flourishing is used as the starting point for a new conceptualization of health.