Caplan A L
Center for Biomedical Ethics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455.
Theor Med. 1992 Mar;13(1):67-77. doi: 10.1007/BF00489220.
There has been a great deal of discussion, in this journal and others, about obstacles hindering the evolution of the philosophy of medicine. Such discussions presuppose that there is widespread agreement about what it is that constitutes the philosophy of medicine. Despite the fact that there is, and has been for decades, a great deal of literature, teaching and professional activity carried out explicitly in the name of the "philosophy of medicine", this is not enough to establish that consensus exists as to the definition of the field. And even if consensus can be obtained as to what constitutes the philosophy of medicine, this does not mean that it exists as a field. In order to constitute a field, an inquiry must be well-integrated with other cognate inquiries and disciplines, have an established canon of key books, textbooks, anthologies and articles, and a set of distinctive and defining problems. The philosophy of medicine as it currently exists fails to satisfy these criteria and, thus, fails to exist as a field of inquiry. The non-existence of the philosophy of medicine is unfortunate. Medicine and philosophy would both benefit from the development of the philosophy of medicine as a field. The philosophy of medicine is an essential foundation for bioethics, it should provide insights into some of the key problems of the philosophy of science such as the nature of explanation and theoretical evolution, and, ought help to shape the goals as well as the methods used in both experimentation and research in medicine and the health sciences.
在本期刊及其他刊物上，已经有大量关于阻碍医学哲学发展的障碍的讨论。此类讨论预先假定，对于构成医学哲学的内容存在广泛共识。尽管事实上，数十年来一直有大量明确以“医学哲学”之名开展的文献、教学及专业活动，但这并不足以确立在该领域的定义上存在共识。而且，即便能够就医学哲学的构成达成共识，这也并不意味着它作为一个领域而存在。为了构成一个领域，一项探究必须与其他相关探究和学科充分整合，有一套既定的关键书籍、教科书、文选及文章的经典，以及一系列独特且具有界定性的问题。当前存在的医学哲学未能满足这些标准，因此未能作为一个探究领域而存在。医学哲学不存在是不幸的。医学和哲学都将从医学哲学作为一个领域的发展中受益。医学哲学是生物伦理学的重要基础，它应该为科学哲学的一些关键问题提供见解，比如解释的本质和理论演变，并且，应该有助于塑造医学和健康科学中实验与研究的目标以及所使用的方法。
