ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests a pivot away from ideal of a value-free medicine, both in clinical practices and in research. The insistence that medicine be value-free is likely a relic held over from the positivist days, when the hope for the discovery of the “logic of science” and the reliance of the great firewall ruled the scientific and philosophical day. A philosophically informed medicine is one that is tolerant, open-minded, transparent, and humble. Medicine, like all human pursuits, ought to be grounded ultimately in how it affects us and what people value and care about. Philosophers consider things like happiness, altruism, and autonomy to be intrinsically valuable. In a short paper, American philosopher Chase Wrenn uses a series of clever thought experiments to argue that truth is not intrinsically valuable and, even if it were, its value would be fairly low.
