Incurable suffering from the ''Hiatus theoreticus''? Some epistemological problems in modern medicine and the clinical relevance of philosophy of medicine

Journal/Book: Theor Med Bioeth. 1998; 19: Spuiboulevard 50, PO Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, Netherlands. Kluwer Academic Publ. 229-251.

Abstract: Up to now neither the question, whether all theoretical medical knowledge can at least be described as scientific, nor the one how exactly access to the existing scientific and theoretical medical knowledge during clinical problem-solving is made, has been sufficiently answered. Scientific theories play an important role in controlling clinical practice and improving the quality of clinical care in modem medicine on the one hand, and making it vindicable on the other. Therefore, the vagueness of unexplicit interrelations between medicine's stock of knowledge and medical practice appears as a gap in the theoretical concept of modem medicine which can be described as ''Hiatus theoreticus'' in the anatomy of medicine. A central intention of the paper is to analyze the role of philosophy of medicine for the clarification of the theoretical basis of medical practice. Clinical relevance and normativity in the sense of modem theory of science are suggested as criteria to establish a differentiation between philosophy of medicine as a primary medical discipline and the application of general philosophy in medicine.

Note: Article Paul N, Univ Dusseldorf, Inst Med, Inst Hist Med, PF 101007, D-40001 Dusseldorf, GERMANY

Keyword(s): biomedical knowledge; causality in medicine; exactness in medicine; knowledge modelling in medicine; philosophy of medicine; theoretical knowledge and clinical relevance

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