ABSTRACT
Philosophical analyses of medicine have a long pedigree (see Engelhardt 1986; Pellegrino 1976, 1986; Pellegrino and Thomasma 1981, Chapter 1). Nonetheless, only in the last dozen years or so have professional philosophers and philosophically sensitive physicians paid any sustained attention to a philosophy of medicine. In part this renewed interest can be traced to the burgeoning impact of medical ethics—a branch of philosophy of medicine broadly conceived. Part of this interest is also dependent on the dynamic growth of studies in the philosophy of biology which furnish insights into the sciences that are traditionally viewed as lying at the core of medicine.
