Prescriptions - (African Special Bibliographic) by Raphael Sassower & Gayle L Ormiston (Hardcover)

About the Book

The essays brought together in this volume are the product of a University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Colloquium on Science, Technology, and Society devoted to foundations of health care practices. Prescriptions contributes to the philosophy of medicine by redefining, redrawing, and resetting the respective domains of philosophy, medicine, and healthcare. It provides a conceptual point of departure, a point from which the radical changes that will be required of health care in the next century can be envisioned and acted upon.

Part I consists of three essays that provide critical analyses of the conceptual apparatus that informs the many dimensions of health care practices. In general, the contributors challenge the fundamental relationships of authority that exist between patients and health care practitioners, question the tradition of using classical ethical theories within the domain of health care, and suggest a set of different directions in which health care should develop. These essays demonstrate why a reevaluation of the culture of health care, and not just specific practices, is necessary. The two essays in Part II explore the economic, technical, legal, and public policy dimensions of contemporary medicine. The novelty of these essays lies in their response to the challenges already posed by the three preceding essays: each essay attempts to provide a specific contextual analysis for articulating and testing the broad conceptual and axiological problems raised therein. Part III provides a more specific context for exploring the issues and themes articulated in Parts I and II. Drawing attention to the techniques used to diagnose and, supposedly, cure, the contributors directly attack the view that psychoanalysis can be understood in medical or scientific terms. Those interested in the philosophical aspects of health care will find this volume provocative reading.

Book Synopsis

The essays brought together in this volume are the product of a University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Colloquium on Science, Technology, and Society devoted to foundations of health care practices. Prescriptions contributes to the philosophy of medicine by redefining, redrawing, and resetting the respective domains of philosophy, medicine, and healthcare. It provides a conceptual point of departure, a point from which the radical changes that will be required of health care in the next century can be envisioned and acted upon.

Part I consists of three essays that provide critical analyses of the conceptual apparatus that informs the many dimensions of health care practices. In general, the contributors challenge the fundamental relationships of authority that exist between patients and health care practitioners, question the tradition of using classical ethical theories within the domain of health care, and suggest a set of different directions in which health care should develop. These essays demonstrate why a reevaluation of the culture of health care, and not just specific practices, is necessary. The two essays in Part II explore the economic, technical, legal, and public policy dimensions of contemporary medicine. The novelty of these essays lies in their response to the challenges already posed by the three preceding essays: each essay attempts to provide a specific contextual analysis for articulating and testing the broad conceptual and axiological problems raised therein. Part III provides a more specific context for exploring the issues and themes articulated in Parts I and II. Drawing attention to the techniques used to diagnose and, supposedly, cure, the contributors directly attack the view that psychoanalysis can be understood in medical or scientific terms. Those interested in the philosophical aspects of health care will find this volume provocative reading.

Review Quotes

"The essays in this collection address the notion of whether health-care practice [can] afford to be bound by a foundation or an ethics? If foundations are necessary, then what kind of principles are required? And if principles are required, how fixed or stable can they be?' The volume contains a multiplicity of prescriptions' that offer suggestions, if not concrete answers, to these thought-provoking questions in the philosophy of medicine. Contents include: Democratizing Medicine, ' by Joseph Agassi; Contemporary Bioethics and the Demise of Modern Medicine, ' by Robert M. Veatch; Humanizing Health Care Practice Through a More Humane Technology of Concepts, ' by James W. Dicoff and Patricia James; Increasing Health Consumerism: Can It Be Done?' by Marilyn L. Stember; The New Reproductive Technologies: Ethical, Social, and Public Policy Concerns, ' by Michael A. Grodin; Psychoanalysis as Religion: Psychoanalytic Theory as Ideology, Psychoanalytic Practice as Cure of Souls, ' by Thomas Szasz; and Seduction in Tongues: Reconstructing the Field of Metaphor in the Treatment of Schizophrenia, ' by Nathaniel Laor."-Science, Technology & Society

?The essays in this book examine the limitations of medicine, philosophy, and health care as they interact to create the foundations of medical authority. By looking at the contexts in which such authority develops, the editors provide a conceptual point of departure for reconsidering the boundaries between philosophical, scientific, and theological theories and the provision of care?-Hasting Center Report

?The essays in this collection address the notion of whether health-care practice [can] afford to be bound by a foundation or an ethics? If foundations are necessary, then what kind of principles are required? And if principles are required, how fixed or stable can they be?' The volume contains a multiplicity of prescriptions' that offer suggestions, if not concrete answers, to these thought-provoking questions in the philosophy of medicine. Contents include: Democratizing Medicine, ' by Joseph Agassi; Contemporary Bioethics and the Demise of Modern Medicine, ' by Robert M. Veatch; Humanizing Health Care Practice Through a More Humane Technology of Concepts, ' by James W. Dicoff and Patricia James; Increasing Health Consumerism: Can It Be Done?' by Marilyn L. Stember; The New Reproductive Technologies: Ethical, Social, and Public Policy Concerns, ' by Michael A. Grodin; Psychoanalysis as Religion: Psychoanalytic Theory as Ideology, Psychoanalytic Practice as Cure of Souls, ' by Thomas Szasz; and Seduction in Tongues: Reconstructing the Field of Metaphor in the Treatment of Schizophrenia, ' by Nathaniel Laor.?-Science, Technology & Society

"The essays in this book examine the limitations of medicine, philosophy, and health care as they interact to create the foundations of medical authority. By looking at the contexts in which such authority develops, the editors provide a conceptual point of departure for reconsidering the boundaries between philosophical, scientific, and theological theories and the provision of care"-Hasting Center Report

About the Author

GAYLE L. ORMISTON is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Institute for Applied Linguistics at Kent State University. He is the editor of From Artifact to Habitat and is co-author of Narrative Experiments: The Discursive Authority of Science and Technology.

RAPHAEL SASSOWER is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He is the author of Philosophy of Economics and is co-author of Narrative Experiments: The Discursive Authority of Science and Technology.