Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. Core Concepts in Health Care

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Philosophy of Medicine and Bioethics

      • Thomas Schramme

      Pages 3-15

   3. Normality as Convention and as Scientific Fact

      • Ruth Chadwick

      Pages 17-28

   4. On Concepts of Positive Health

      • Lennart Nordenfelt

      Pages 29-43

   5. Disease as Scientific and as Value-Laden Concept

      • Elselijn Kingma

      Pages 45-63

   6. Mental Disorders as Genuine Medical Conditions

      • Jerome C. Wakefield

      Pages 65-82

   7. Curing and Healing: Two Goals of Medicine

      • Dorota Szawarska

      Pages 83-92

   8. Illness and Its Experience: The Patient Perspective

      • Havi Carel

      Pages 93-108

   9. Nursing as Caring

      • Derek Sellman

      Pages 109-120

   10. Goals of Medicine

       • Thomas Schramme

       Pages 121-128

   11. Suffering: Harm to Bodies, Minds, and Persons

       • Bjørn Hofmann

       Pages 129-145

   12. Disability as Medical and as Social Category

       • Steven Edwards

       Pages 147-158

   13. Subjective and Objective Accounts of Well-Being and Quality of Life

       • Thomas Schramme

       Pages 159-168

   14. Pain as a Subjective and Objective Phenomenon

       • Wim Dekkers

       Pages 169-187

   15. Death as Biological Category

       • Stephen Holland

       Pages 189-205

   16. Suicide

       • Steven Edwards

       Pages 207-222

   17. Enhancing Human Abilities and Characteristics Beyond Normality

       • Andrew Bloodworth

       Pages 223-232

   18. How Can Aging Be Thought of as Anything Other Than a Disease?

       • Arthur Caplan

       Pages 233-240

3. Organisms

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 241-241

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This is the first wide-ranging, multi-authored handbook in the field of philosophy of medicine, covering the underlying conceptual issues of many important social, political and ethical issues in health care. It introduces and develops over 70 topics, concepts, and issues in the field. It is written by distinguished specialists from multiple disciplines, including philosophy, health sciences, nursing, sociology, political theory, and medicine. Many difficult social and ethical issues in health care are based on conceptual problems, most prominently on the definitions of health and disease, or on epistemological issues regarding causality or diagnosis. Philosophy is the discipline that deals with such conceptual, metaphysical, epistemological, methodological, and axiological matters. This handbook covers all the central concepts in medicine, such as ageing, death, disease, mental disorder, and well-being. It is an invaluable source for laypeople, academics with an interest in medicine, and health care specialists who want be informed and up to date with the relevant discussions. The text also advances these debates and will set the agenda for years to come.

• Bioethics
• Disease
• Health
• Medicine
• Philosophy
• basic aspects of health care
• concepts in health care
• concepts in medicine
• foundations of medicine
• ideas in medicine
• medical terminology
• notions in health care
• philosophical aspects of health care
• philosophical issues in medicine
• philosophy and medicine
• philosophy of medicine
• theoretical issues in health care
• theories of medicine

“Editors Thomas Schramme and Steven Edwards have assembled the Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine with the understanding that philosophy of medicine has indeed become an established field of study … . the Springer Handbook succeeds as a comprehensive resource in contemporary philosophy of medicine and should be available in all major libraries supporting education and research in health care and philosophy of medicine and science.” (Patrick Daly, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, November, 2017)

• Department of Philosophy, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

  Thomas Schramme

• Philosophy, History and Law, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom

  Steven Edwards

Thomas Schramme is Professor in the Department of Philosophy of University of Hamburg, Germany. Dr. Schramme has nearly 2 decades of teaching and research experience in the field of philosophy of medicine. He has held several fellowships and holds Editorial Board memberships in a number of prestigious journals. Dr. Schramme has to his credit a large number of publications on philosophy of medicine and bioethics.

Steven Edwards is Professor in the Department of Philosophy, History & Law in Swansea University, UK. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Edwards has focused mainly on ethical and philosophical issues in healthcare, specifically the philosophy and ethics of nursing and the philosophy of disability. He is a member of important ethics committees in related fields. Dr. Edwards has to his credit a good number of publications on philosophy of medicine and bioethics.

Policies and ethics