Philosophical considerations of medicine

Abstract

Medical thought and the practice of medicine pose a host of philosophical problems. These gravitate from the characterization of medicine to epistemological, logical and ethical problems.

After four centuries of scientific development, and almost two centuries of medicine based on scientific research, it seems that medicine has already advanced enough. Currently, we have abundant information about the different etiological agents and about the most innovative diagnostic and therapeutic tools. Every year, biomedical research publishes thousands of articles; so many, that they are estimated at eleven million published to date. We are, therefore, full of information and data; It would seem, then, that almost everything is said and done, to the point of not being able to find free research material. However, if we looked more critically, we could reveal that such progress may be insufficient and even risky. For example, a study has shown that the medical literature is chaotic in its organization; many journals compete for the same material, their area of ​​specialization being very narrow, unable to adequately cover the needs of all those involved in patient care.