Theoretical medicine: A proposal for reconceptualizing medicine as a science of actions

Journal/Book: J Med Phil. 1996; 21: Spuiboulevard 50, PO Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, Netherlands. Kluwer Academic Publ. 659-670.

Abstract: The main task of a critical theory of medicine should be to develop a perspectival, context-fair, and multidimensional science of actions which integrates both diversity and heterogeneity within medicine without eliminating either one. Such a theory should employ diversity in the following areas: (1) in systems subsystems, and professions, because different medical professions embody different health-care subsystems, thereby influencing the way manpower is utilized (2) in actors, (e.g., patients, health-care experts and society), processes, and situations, because each actor potentially conceptualizes health, illness, and desired outcomes differently; and (3) in models of medicine (i.e., as an object science versus an action science). Situational influences modify concepts and explanatory models; even the particular terms, such as illness, disease, and sickness, are not necessarily concordant with each other.

Note: Article Lolas F, Univ Chile, POB 70055, Santiago, CHILE

Keyword(s): alternative medicine; medical theory; medical epistemology; BIOMEDICINE; PATIENT; MODEL; VIEW

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