Jeremy R Simon1. 1. Department of Medicine, Center for Bioethics, Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY 10032, USA. js1115@columbia.edu
Abstract
RATIONALE: One's understanding of medical progress - what it is, how it is pursued and how it is assessed - may be deeply dependent on one's understanding of the metaphysics of medicine, and of diseases in particular. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: In this paper I present a new account of the nature of diseases, neither realist nor constructivist, and describe what progress in medicine looks like if we understand diseases in this way. CONCLUSIONS: This new account, Constructive Realism, may provide a better account of medicine than either realism or constructivism.
RATIONALE: One's understanding of medical progress - what it is, how it is pursued and how it is assessed - may be deeply dependent on one's understanding of the metaphysics of medicine, and of diseases in particular. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: In this paper I present a new account of the nature of diseases, neither realist nor constructivist, and describe what progress in medicine looks like if we understand diseases in this way. CONCLUSIONS: This new account, Constructive Realism, may provide a better account of medicine than either realism or constructivism.