On what there are

pp. 685-710

in: Kazem Sadegh-Zadeh, Handbook of analytic philosophy of medicine, Berlin, Springer, 2012

Abstract

Medicine and philosophy of medicine confront a variety of specific metaphysical problems whose analysis and solution have significant theoretical and practical consequences. Among them are questions of the following type: Do diseases really exist or are they mere inventions? Are there really pathological processes of the type X, e.g., autoimmune reactions, or are they mere hypothetical constructions? What is the nature of human mind? Does psychosomatic causation really exist? Is medical knowledge true or is it only useful without being true? Does medicine belong to the humanities or is it a natural science, an applied science, or something else?