The author discusses the postmodernist claim that the grand theories have lost credibility, even in the field of medical science and practice. Rather than representing a shared reality among physician and patient, illness represents two quite distinct realities — the meaning of one being significantly and distinctively different from the meaning of the other. However, existential clinical narratives can function as important bridges between the world of the patient and the world of the physician. Such narratives provide important information regarding (...) the patient's biographical situation and, particularly, the personal and cultural meanings which are a function of the biographical situation. At the same time, these narratives provide physicians with useful information for the practice of medicine. (shrink)

In der Medizin vollzieht sich im 19. Jahrhundert eine kopernikanische Wende: Die Zellulartheorie wird entwickelt. Heute ist uns vollig selbstverstandlich, dass der menschliche Korper aus Zellen besteht, die seine Struktur und Funktion bestimmen. Doch diese Lehre bestimmt seit gerade einmal 150 Jahren das medizinische Denken und hat Theorien abgelost, welche unvorstellbare 2.000 Jahre Geltung besassen. Diesen Wandel interpretiert die Autorin als Paradigmawechsel und verfolgt ihn in den Werken deutscher, englischer und franzosischer Arzte des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts. Sie beleuchtet den (...) Einfluss der Philosophie, insbesondere die Auswirkungen der Ideen Kants und Schellings. Die Studie zu den philosophischen Grundlagen der modernen Medizin richtet sich an Philosophen, Wissenschaftshistoriker und Arzte. In the 19th century, a Copernican turn took place in medicine with the development of the cell theory. We take it completely for granted today that the human body is made up of cells which determine its structure and its function. But this doctrine has only been defining medical thinking for 150 years and it replaced theories which had been valid for an inconceivable 2000 years. The author interprets this transition as a paradigm shift, and she explores it in the works of German, English and French doctors in the 18th and 19th century. She sheds light on the influence of philosophy, in particular the impact of Kans and Schellings ideas. This study of the philosophical foundations of modern medicine is addressed to philosophers, science historians and medical physicians. (shrink)

In der Medizin vollzieht sich im 19. Jahrhundert eine kopernikanische Wende: Die Zellulartheorie wird entwickelt. Heute ist uns vollig selbstverstandlich, dass der menschliche Korper aus Zellen besteht, die seine Struktur und Funktion bestimmen. Doch diese Lehre bestimmt seit gerade einmal 150 Jahren das medizinische Denken und hat Theorien abgelost, welche unvorstellbare 2.000 Jahre Geltung besassen. Diesen Wandel interpretiert die Autorin als Paradigmawechsel und verfolgt ihn in den Werken deutscher, englischer und franzosischer Arzte des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts. Sie beleuchtet den (...) Einfluss der Philosophie, insbesondere die Auswirkungen der Ideen Kants und Schellings. Die Studie zu den philosophischen Grundlagen der modernen Medizin richtet sich an Philosophen, Wissenschaftshistoriker und Arzte. In the 19th century, a Copernican turn took place in medicine with the development of the cell theory. We take it completely for granted today that the human body is made up of cells which determine its structure and its function. But this doctrine has only been defining medical thinking for 150 years and it replaced theories which had been valid for an inconceivable 2000 years. The author interprets this transition as a paradigm shift, and she explores it in the works of German, English and French doctors in the 18th and 19th century. She sheds light on the influence of philosophy, in particular the impact of Kans and Schellings ideas. This study of the philosophical foundations of modern medicine is addressed to philosophers, science historians and medical physicians. (shrink)

The definition of Induction in the "topic" is but a description of the prearistotelian process of generalisation. - The genuine aristotelian theory of induction does not concern general propositions but the objectconstruction; it tries to give a logical solution to the theory of anamnesis. - The inductive syllogism is not a summative induction but a suggestion that the relation of extensions of classes is the only criterion for the projectibility of known cases on unknown. - The stoics accept contraposition as (...) the only form of scientific inference while the epicureans introduce a pure empirical criterion for sound general propositions. Both theories however, suggest an identification of the problem of induction with the problem of possibility. - Philoponos is the first author to give a classification of sciences from a methodological point of view. He rejects pure induction and proposes the hypothetico - deductive Method as a solution of the problem of induction. (shrink)