Dissertations / Theses: 'Medicine and Philosophy'

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Robert, Dominique 1950. "Humane bioethics : medicine, philosophy, religion and law." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=31531.

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This thesis is about the content and concerns of each of four disciplines pertaining to the field of bioethics: medicine, philosophy, religion and law. Emphasis is put on the human values each reflects in patients' lives. A last chapter is dedicated to patients' narrative in order to bring a practical perspective to the discussions of the previous chapters. The four essential human values interconnecting among the four disciplines are: the patients' need for authority, the need for protection, the existential questioning about the meaning of life, and the fear of death.

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Patel, Kavita. "AYURVEDA: A STUDY OF EASTERN PHILOSOPHY OF MEDICINE." Miami University Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1210169950.

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Kassell, Lauren. "Simon Forman's philosophy of medicine : medicine, astrology and alchemy in London, c.1580-1611." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.270851.

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Tuminello, III Joseph Anthony. "The Food-Drug Relationship in Health and Medicine." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2019. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1505266/.

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In this dissertation, I apply Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics to examine interpretations of the food-drug relationship within the contexts of health and medicine. Assumptions regarding the relationship between these categories undergird a substantial academic discourse and function as key components in worldviews beyond the academy. Despite this, little work has been done in foregrounding them to allow for critique and consideration of alternative perspectives. Unearthing philosophical assumptions within various fields, epistemic systems, and regulatory bodies, I classify food-drug interpretations into two main categories: dichotomous interpretations of the categories of "food" and "drugs" as ontologically distinct, and continuum-based interpretations where these categories overlap. Rather than arguing for a single appropriate way of understanding the food-drug relationship, my project aims to disclose the complexities of both sets of interpretations, illustrating their virtues and vices, and underscoring the need for people to call their own interpretations into question while taking seriously those of others. The dialogical structure of philosophical hermeneutics provides a useful foundation for dialogue within and between dichotomous and continuum-based interpretations. We do not have unmediated access to a mind-independent reality, the terms "food" and "drugs" do not necessarily refer to natural kinds, and all interpretations likely have different degrees of strengths and blind spots. Food-drug interpretations are bound up with larger worldviews, holistic systems that generate meaning for their adherents. Granting this, conversation partners can seek to gain a clearer picture of differing interpretations, what they can learn from these interpretations, and how they can interrogate their own interpretive modes.

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Chatfield, Kate. "Traditional and complementary medicine : analysing ethical challenges." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2016. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/16600/.

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The use of traditional and complementary medicines (T&CMs) is both ubiquitous in low and middle income countries and highly contested in some sections of high income countries. Whilst T&CMs are promoted as an accessible and affordable health care system by high level health policy makers (for example, the Director General of the World Health Organization), their use is simultaneously indicted as a waste of resources, non-scientific, and unethical. The aim of this thesis is to provide a calm, considered and well researched view on a highly emotional topic: What is the nature of the ethical challenges for the use and practice of TCMs and how might they be addressed? The methodology chosen for the ambitious topic of this thesis is the Ethical Matrix as developed by Ben Mepham in the UK in the 1990s. It is founded upon a principlist approach to ethical analysis and has been used widely in decision-making for new technologies. It requires the consideration of interests of stakeholders including, but also beyond, human beings. For the purpose of this thesis four groups were selected: human users of T&CM, the environment, animals, and low and middle income countries (LMICs). Ethical analysis reveals that: • Most ethical concerns associated with T&CMs are related to safety issues for human users; • there are also serious concerns about the way in which animals are routinely harmed through use in T&CM products and T&CM research; • the production and use of some T&CMs does have damaging impacts upon the environment and, • the ethical challenges associated with the use of T&CM in LMICs are different from those in high income countries. Based on the analysis, the thesis provides clear steps to be taken to reduce the potential for harm from both adverse drug reactions and adverse events for humans as well as recommendations to reduce the harm to animals and the environment from use of T&CMs.

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Salim, Muhammad Omar. "Middle Eastern Philosophy and Approach to Medicine and Patient Care." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/146651.

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The nature of physiology and medicine in Middle Eastern society is an integral aspect of modern medicine. Especially in American society today, it is easy to prescribe to linear characterizations of the practice of healing and treatment without analyzing how these methods came to be, or if there are alternative, more efficient means. At the very least, medical philosophy of the Middle East should be thoroughly analyzed as to increase awareness and benefit those seeking an alternate view of medicine. From a physician or caretaker's standpoint, it is critical to research this topic so one can tactfully aid and maximize the efficacy of the healing process of a member of this society, respectful of custom and religion, avoiding taboo or approaches in a counteractive manner. This paper's purpose is to elucidate and analyze the easterner's mindset and mental framework on how healing is viewed, primarily through religious and cultural lenses. Case studies and current topics of debate will be reported on issues where physiological advancements have created phenomenas unique to this society, bringing a greater understanding of how adherent easterners are of certain values and how advancements in society push adaptation and modernization. Overall, this thesis will bridge the understanding of the Middle Eastern convention of medicine, contributing to more effective interaction, discourse, and positivity between diverse cultures in an ever-globalizing society.

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Blunt, Christopher. "Hierarchies of evidence in evidence-based medicine." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2015. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/3284/.

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Hierarchies of evidence are an important and influential tool for appraising evidence in medicine. In recent years, hierarchies have been formally adopted by organizations including the Cochrane Collaboration [1], NICE [2,3], the WHO [4], the US Preventive Services Task Force [5], and the Australian NHMRC [6,7]. The development of such hierarchies has been regarded as a central part of Evidence-Based Medicine (e.g. [8-10]), a movement within healthcare which prioritises the use of epidemiological evidence such as that provided by Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs). Philosophical work on the methodology of medicine has so far mostly focused on claims about the superiority of RCTs, and hence has largely neglected the questions of what hierarchies are, what assumptions they require, and how they affect clinical practice. This thesis shows that there is great variation in the hierarchies defended and in the interpretations they are, and can be, given. The interpretative assumptions made in using hierarchies are crucial to the content and defensibility of the underlying philosophical commitments concerning evidence and medical practice. Once this variation is been identified, it becomes clear that the little philosophical work that has been done so far affects only some hierarchies, under some interpretations. Modest interpretations offered by La Caze [11], conditional hierarchies like GRADE [12-14], and heuristic approaches such as that defended by Howick et al. [15,16] all survive previous philosophical criticism. This thesis extends previous criticisms by arguing that modest interpretations are so weak as to be unhelpful for clinical practice; that GRADE and similar conditional models omit clinically relevant information, such as information about variation in treatments’ effects and the causes of different responses to therapy; and that heuristic approaches lack the necessary empirical support. The conclusion is that hierarchies in general embed untenable philosophical assumptions: principally that information about average treatment effects backed by high-quality evidence can justify strong recommendations, and that the impact of evidence from individual studies can and should be appraised in isolation. Hierarchies are a poor basis for the application of evidence in clinical practice. The Evidence-Based Medicine movement should move beyond them and explore alternative tools for appraising the overall evidence for therapeutic claims.

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Loeben, Gregory Scott. "Medical futility and the goals of medicine." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/288943.

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I begin by exploring the distinction between the physiologic, quantitative, and qualitative conceptions of futility. I argue that if medical futility is going to be a useful and appropriate normative tool in the medical lexicon, it should not duplicate and confuse judgments which we already have the tools to make. Hence, I distinguish qualitative futility from the concepts of distributive justice, rationing, harm, and insufficient benefit. Lastly, I consider the argument that providing qualitative futility violates professional integrity. Next I consider the claim that futility judgments are a form of unjustified paternalism. I also explore the relationship of physician imposition of values and the ideas of individual patient well-being, and self-determination. I consider an argument put forth by Thomlinson and Brody that futility judgments actually support autonomy, concluding that their argument must be restricted to individuals whose choices can be shown to be inconsistent with their values and aims. Lastly, I provide a comparison of futility judgments and the ordinary/extraordinary distinction which shows futility to be normatively vague and clinically dangerous. Because of the potential for misuse and confusion, I compare futility and rationing judgments. I argue that rationing decisions are necessary but should be explicit rather than disguised as futility. The consequences of failing to adequately distinguish these two are unfairness to individual patients, and harm to the doctor-patient relationship and societal trust of medicine. I detail a number of models of the physician patient relationship and attempt to determine two things: (1) whether these allow for physician authority to withhold qualitatively futile care, and (2) how well these models can answer this question in the absence of an account of the goals of medicine. I conclude that various accounts offer little specific guidance about the physician's right to withhold qualitatively futile treatment. Finally, in chapter seven I attempt to ground the debate about medical futility in the larger context of a debate about the appropriate ends and goals of medicine, arguing that such limits require an extended social dialogue.

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Kerry, Roger. "Causation in evidence based medicine." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2017. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40494/.

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Evidence based medicine (EBM) offers an established framework for the generation, interpretation, and utilisation of information in medicine and the health sciences. Central to the practice of EBM is, I argue, the notion of causation. This thesis makes an original contribution to the philosophy of EBM through a unique identification of a causal theory in EBM, and then by demonstrating a reconceptualised theory of causation better suited to evidence based person centred care. PART 1 of this thesis demonstrates that a very specific idea of causation can be witnessed within the structure of EBM. This idea is typically Humean. Through a consideration of the structure and textual narrative of EBM, it is proposed that the framework substantiates central and canonical claims. These claims relate to the core activity of EBM being the informing of clinical decision-making through the transference of causal claims from prioritised research methods. I argue that a Humean notion of causation is problematic for the central and canonical claims, thereby presenting a paradox – EBM is structured to inform clinical decision-making about causation but is inhibited from doing so by the way this very structure conceptualises causation. In PART 2 I argue for a reconceptualisation of causation that offers some solutions to the problems identified in PART 1. This theory relates to a dispositionalist ontology and takes causes to be derived from properties of an individual and as being things that merely tend towards an effect. Causes are seen as complex and context-sensitive, and whereby a traditional Humean account sees these factors as challenges to its epistemological reading, causal dispositionalism takes them as its starting point. To present this theory, desiderata are developed from existing narratives on EBM and elements of the theory set against these. In conclusion, I argue that if medicine and health care desire a framework of practice that is both evidence based and person centred, its causal theory must be reconceptualised. Causal dispositionalism offers an encouraging reconceptualisation.

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Singer, Peter Nicholas. "Galen on the soul : philosophy and medicine in the second century A.D." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1993. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/251540.

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Normandin, Sebastien. "Visions of vitalism : medicine, philosophy and the soul in nineteenth century France." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=100666.

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Vitalism is an underappreciated and often misunderstood idea. This thesis seeks to explore the historical origins and meanings of vitalism in 19th century France; tracing the transition from medical vitalism in the Montpellier School in the late 18th and early 19th century to a largely philosophical vitalism in the late 19th century, emblemized by Henri Bergson.
I argue that the decline of medical vitalism was brought about by the rise of scientific medicine, the experimentalism of physiologists like Claude Bernard and the growing influence of positivism in late 19th century France. I see the seminal moment of this transition from a metaphysical to a scientific world-view in the materialism-spiritualism controversy of the 1850s, which was sparked by the development of modern biology and the experimental life sciences.
Despite its general disappearance from mainstream medicine and science, vitalism continued to have echoes in a number of fields in the 20th century, and remains a concept relevant to our contemporary circumstances.

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Lukhozi, Sipho Michael. "Dual obligations in clinical forensic medicine." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/86537.

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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis discusses ethical dilemmas faced by district surgeons in South Africa. District surgeons render clinical forensic services, which means that they deal mainly with detainees and victims of crime. The main functions of district surgeons are the collection of forensic evidence from patients and the care of detainees. So the focus is to assist in the administration of justice rather than improvement of patient wellbeing. The district surgeon may therefore find himself in a situation where patients’ interests are in conflict with those of law enforcement agencies. Being a medical practitioner in clinical forensic medicine, the district surgeon has an obligation to assist in the administration of justice, as opposed to the traditional obligation to care for patients and put patient’s interests first. This allegiance to both administration of justice as well as patient wellbeing lead to an ethical dilemma of dual loyalties. A dual obligations presents an ethical dilemma for the district surgeon, especially if they are in conflict and mutually exclusive. I discuss the detention and subsequent death of Steve Biko to illustrate how dual obligations can lead to serious human rights violations and even death. Dual obligations are however not limited to detainees and police custody settings, and I demonstrate this by discussing three other scenarios commonly encountered by district surgeons. There is a lack clear guidance for district surgeons who are faced with a conflict of obligations. I explore several ethical theories including consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics, in search of an ethical framework suitable for resolving conflicts in clinical forensic medicine. I therefore argue that a duty based ethical framework is central to clinical forensic medicine and the resolution of loyalty conflicts. I recommend the resolution of conflicts by using an approach developed by Benjamin (2006). This approach involves weighing -up the different duties in conflict, applying philosophical reasoning and then amelioration. By adopting a structured and wellreasoned ethical framework, district surgeons will be able to deal with conflicts of obligations better.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis bespreek etiese dilemmas wat in die gesig gestaar word deur distriksgeneeshere in Suid-Afrika. Distriksgeneeshere lewer kliniese forensiese dienste, wat beteken dat hulle handel hoofsaaklik oor die gevangenes en slagoffers van misdaad. Die belangrikste funksies van distriksgeneeshere is die insameling van forensiese getuienis van pasiënte, en die sorg van gevangenes. Met hierdie benadering is die fokus om te help met die administratiewe doeleindes van geregtigheid, eerder as die verbetering van die pasiënt se welstand. Die distriksgeneesheer kan hom dus in 'n situasie vind waarby die pasiënte se belange in konflik is met dié van wetstoepassingsagentskappe. As 'n geneesheer in kliniese forensiese geneeskunde, het die distriksgeneesheer 'n verpligting om te help met die administrasie van geregtigheid, in teenstelling met die tradisionele verpligting om te sorg vir hul pasiënte, en hul welstand eerste te plaas. Hierdie getrouheid gaan gepaard met beide regspleging, sowel as die welstand van die pasiënt, wat kan lei tot 'n etiese dilemma van dubbele lojaliteit. Dubbele verpligtinge bied 'n etiese dilemma vir die distriksgeneesheer, veral as hulle in konflik en wedersyds uitsluitend is. Ek bespreek die aanhouding en die daaropvolgende dood van Steve Biko om te illustreer hoe dubbele verpligtinge kan lei tot ernstige skending van menseregte en selfs die dood. Dubbele verpligtinge is egter nie beperk tot die gevangenes en polisie-aanhouding instellings nie, en ek demonstreer dit deur die bespreking van drie ander “scenario's” wat oor die algemeen eervaar word deur distriksgeneeshere. Daar is 'n gebrek aan duidelike riglyne vir distriksgeneeshere wat 'n botsing van verpligtinge in die gesig staar. Ek verken verskeie etiese teorieë insluitende konsekwensialisme, deontologie en deugde-etiek, op soek na 'n etiese raamwerk geskik vir die oplossing van konflikte in kliniese geregtelike geneeskunde. Ek argumenteer dus dat 'n pligsgebaseerde etiese raamwerk sentraal is tot kliniese forensiese geneeskunde, en die resolusie van lojaliteit konflikte. Ek beveel die oplossing van konflikte deur die gebruik van 'n benadering wat ontwikkel is deur Benjamin (2006). Hierdie benadering behels 'n gewigsoorweging tussen die verskillende pligte in konflik, die toepassing van filosofiese redenasie en verbetering. Deur die aanneming van 'n gestruktureerde en beredeneerde etiese raamwerk, sal distriksgeneeshere dus in staat wees om konflikte van verpligtinge beter te hanteer.

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Nelson, Deborah Ann. "The philosophy and practice of holistic health care a thesis submitted to Auckland University of Technology in fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 2004." Full thesis. Abstract, 2004.

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Hong, Hai. "Epistemological issues in the theory of Chinese medicine." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2012. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/547/.

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Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been criticized for being unscientific because the theory on which it is based involves entities like qi and ’meridians’ that appear ambiguous and because the internal ‘organs’ like the kidney and the spleen are very different from those of modern anatomy and physiology. Even more so, TCM methods of therapy based on the yin-yang principle, the model of the five elements, and the classification of illnesses according to standard constellations of symptoms (TCM “syndromes”) are largely unproven by the protocols of modern evidence-based medicine. This dissertation attempts to reconstruct TCM theory by: (a) providing explanations of TCM entities as abstractions and constructs that relate to observable body functions and illness symptoms and (b) interpreting TCM theory as comprising heuristic models that were constructed from clinical experience to fit empirical observations of illnesses and their treatments with herbal medications and acupuncture. It suggests that scientists should be less concerned with the ontological status of TCM entities and the epistemic credentials of TCM models than with the ability of these concepts and models to guide physicians in therapy. More importantly, it makes the argument that these models are testable using the methods of evidence-based medicine. There are methodological difficulties associated with randomized controlled trials partly because TCM treatments tend to be individualized and syndromes are dynamic in nature; observational trials may be more appropriate in some situations. It is also possible that, for patients who are more culturally attuned to TCM, the placebo effect is strongly at play and may render the real effects of TCM treatments harder to tease out in clinical trials. The dissertation concludes that the main postulates of TCM should be put to rigorous test. The result may be a leaner but more robust theory, with parts that do not stand up to the test being rejected or modified, and a possible acceptance of its more modest therapeutic claims for a limited range of pathological conditions like pain and chronic illnesses.

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Randall, Fiona Maria. "The philosophy of palliative care : a critique." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2000. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3481/.

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Palliative care is unusual as a specialty within health care in that it has its own philosophy, which is summarised in the WHO definition of palliative care. This philosophy has influenced clinical practice so that specialist palliative care differs significantly from other aspects of health care. The thesis is a critique of that philosophy. It examines the moral problems inherent in implementing the philosophy in clinical practice. It concludes with suggestions for improvements which could be made to the philosophy statement so as to influence clinical care for the better. Thesis 1 is that decisions regarding the use of treatment to control symptoms or prolong life did not need to depend on complex doctrines such as double effect, but instead ought to be based on weighing up the benefits, harms and risks of treatment. Thesis 2 is that the relatives should not be an equal part of the remit of care. It is argued that whilst there is a special relationship, founded on an implicit promise and associated with specific obligations, between patients and health care professionals, this special relationship should not be extended to relatives of the patient. Thesis 3 is that quality of life as a global concept should not be used. Since quality of life depends on many incommensurable factors, and it is not possible to construct a coherent account of quality of life from our everyday notions of what it means, it is not possible to construct a quality of life scale. Thesis 4 is that there are constraints of expertise and propriety on attempts to influence the patient’s psychological, social and spiritual well-being. Thesis 5 is that within health care there ought to be a just distribution of resources to specialist palliative care, and then among terminally ill patients regardless of their illness.

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Lo, Kwai-ching, and 羅桂青. "Tao of changes and Tao of medicine : the influences of the philosophy of 'won taoist' and 'concept of time and space' in "Zhou yi" on the theories development of traditional Chinese medicine." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10722/197518.

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本研究以傳統古經《易經》、《易傳》和歷代具代表性的易學專著爲主要研究對象，分析考察《周易》哲學的思維特徵和思維方式；再以經典醫籍《黃帝內經》和其後的《難經》、《傷寒雜病論》以及歷代具代表性的中醫古籍爲主要參照內容，分析歸納傳統中醫理論中的哲學內涵和思辨模式；然後從圜道觀和時位觀兩個方面，通過比較分析傳統中醫理論與《周易》哲學在哲學理念、思維方式等方面的先後承授關係，確定和闡釋《周易》哲學的認識理念和思辨模式對傳統中醫理論形成和發展的影響。　　《周易》認為“圜道＂是天道，周而復始的圜形運動是天道的基本特徵。在《周易》圜道觀的影響下，傳統中醫確立了以十二經脈為主幹的經絡循行理論、以五行生克為框架的臟腑功能理論和以氣運循環為基礎的五運六氣學說等理論學說。　　《周易》按是否得時、是否當位進行推理，通過審時度勢來論斷事物吉兇。在《周易》時位觀的影響下，傳統中醫確定了“因時制宜＂、“因地制宜＂等治療法則。　　易道和醫道相通，易理和醫理相通。本研究結果表明，《周易》哲學思想與傳統中醫理論之間確實存在著淵源關係。本研究為進一步深入探討《周易》哲學思想對傳統中醫理論的影響奠定了良好的工作基礎。 In this study, for analyzing and summarizing the philosophy and thinking mode of “The Book of Changes”, ‘I Ching’, ‘Ten Wings’ and other representative books of ‘Zhou Yi Study’ were used as the main resources, and for studying the philosophy and thinking mode of Traditional Chinese Medicine, ‘The Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic’, ‘Classic on Medical Problems’, ‘Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases’ and other ancient classic books of Traditional Chinese Medicine were used as the main resources. The two philosophy concepts of ‘Won Taoist’ and ‘Concept of Time and Space’ in “The Book of Changes” were used to comparatively analysis the relationship between Traditional Chinese Medicine and the philosophy of “The Book of Changes”, thus to explain the influence of “The Book of Changes” on the theories development of Traditional Chinese Medicine. “The Book of Changes” has indicated that ‘Won Taoist’ is the Tao of Heaven, Won Shaped movement is the basic characteristics of Heaven. Under the influence of the concept of ‘Won Taoist’ in “The Book of Changes”, Traditional Chinese Medicine has established the theories of Twelve-Meridians, Viscera theories of five organs and the theories of doctrine of five evolutive phases and six climatic factors. ‘Right Time’ and ‘Appropriate Position’ are the two main rules in “The Book of Changes” for making judgments of good or bad for all things. Under the influence of the ‘Concept of Time and Space’, Traditional Chinese Medicine has established the theories for treatments that follow the law of ‘Change with Time’ and ‘Change with Region’. Tao of Changes and Tao of Medicine are interconnected, the philosophy of “The Book of Changes” and Traditional Chinese Medicine are also interconnected. The results of this study have shown the existence of historical origins and relationships between “The Book of Changes” and Traditional Chinese Medicine. This study has laid a good basis for the work to further explore the influence of the philosophy of “The Book of Changes” on the theories development of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
published_or_final_version
Chinese Medicine
Master
Master of Philosophy

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Reyes-Illg, Gwendolen. "Respect for Patient Autonomy in Veterinary Medicine| A Relational Approach." Thesis, Colorado State University, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10640397.

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This thesis considers the prospects for including respect for patient autonomy as a value in veterinary medical ethics. Chapter One considers why philosophers have traditionally denied autonomy to animals and why this is problematic; I also present contemporary accounts of animal ethics that recognize animals’ capacity for and exercise of autonomy (or something similar, such as agency) as morally important. In Chapter Two, I review veterinary medical ethics today, finding that respect for patient autonomy is undiscussed or rejected outright as irrelevant. Extrapolating mainstream medical ethics’ account of autonomy to veterinary medicine upholds this conclusion, as it would count all patients as “never-competent” and consider determining their autonomous choices impossible; thus welfare alone would be relevant. Chapter Three begins, in Part I, by describing the ways we routinely override patient autonomy in veterinary practice, both in terms of which interventions are selected and how care is delivered. I also show that some trends in the field suggest a nascent, implicit respect for patient autonomy. Part II of Chapter Three presents feminist criticisms of the mainstream approach to patient autonomy. I argue that the relational approach to autonomy advocated by such critics can be meaningfully applied in the veterinary realm. I advance an approach that conceives respect for patient autonomy in diachronic and dialogic terms, taking the patient as the foremost locus of respect. In Chapter Four, I turn to issues of practical implementation, such as interpreting what constitutes an animal’s values and concerns, and assessing the effect of positive reinforcement training on autonomy. The Conclusion offers areas for future research while refuting the objection that a simpler, expanded welfare-based approach would yield the same substantive recommendations as my account.

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Ndukwe, Cajetan Okechukwu. "Cyber Medicine: An Ethical Evaluation." Thesis, Linköping University, Centre for Applied Ethics, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-2919.

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It is self evident that our society is an information one. This is true from the things we see around us.The world is now a global village.It just take seconds for communication to be established from one part of the globe to another.What a tremendous achievement for information technology.Among the recent developments of information technology is the scientific wizardary of cyber medicine.The internet has definitely revolutionalised the healthcare industry. Many people in developed countries of the world seek medical information, advice or even buy drugs via the internet.So many websites rise every now and then claiming to provide various medical assistance to patients. But the application of information technology to medicine poses some ethical problems today. It is because of this that cyber medicine attracts my attention in this research.With this research, I hope to offer some recommendations for a morally acceptable cyber medicine .This will help to some extent in solving this all important problem ofcyber medicine for the good of the health care industry and the society at large.

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Ballesteros, Gallego Fabian Andres. "Sanctity of life : exploring its significance in modern medicine and bioethics." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=31187.

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This thesis explores the concept of "Sanctity of Life" from the perspective of what "life," in particular human life, means today. With the rapid advances in science and modern medical practice, the concept of life has undergone many changes, shaking the foundations of what before made us view life as sacred. Modern thought has brought new forms of understanding to the concept of life.
I question the goals of modern medicine and biotechnology, and criticize the reductionist view of life. And finally, I highlight a new ethical approach that could bridge science and moral convictions about the concept of life. This approach explores the argument of sanctity of life and its utility in approaching assisted medical techniques and genetic intervention. It is my opinion that this ethical principle has not lost importance and could be reshaped and adapted to a contemporary understanding of life in the light of our democratic and pluralistic society.

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Ziegler, Joseph. "Religion and medicine in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries with particular reference to Arnau de Vilanova." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.240222.

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Lemire, Diane M. "The body in Western and Chinese medicine : discourses and practices." Thesis, McGill University, 2000. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=33297.

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This thesis is about the body and about how medical discourses conceptualise the body in health and in illness. However, any inquisitiveness about the body is determined by historical, social and political environment that nurtures the discursive formations of knowledge. I focus particularly on the conceptualisation of the body in the two distinct medical traditions of Western and Chinese medicine. I examine Michel Foucault's analysis on the medical gaze and on the external technologies of power deployed on the body of the individual and on the social body. The knowledge generated from the medical gaze is articulated through a normalising and prescriptive discourse. The gaze of Chinese medicine that looks at the workings of the cosmos to define the truth about the body generates similar authoritative knowledge that targets the individual and the social body. However, this effect of power, although it never disappears entirely, undergoes significant transformations when it enters the arena of human activities and the potential for improvisation in the behaviour of the human actor. There is always a gap between the text and the practice.

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Seip, Robert. "Complementary and alternative medicine : ethics, legality, and use of the best available science." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2015. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/71691/.

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The purpose of this thesis is to provide a robust epistemological justification for Evidence Based Medicine (EMB), and thereby to demonstrate the epistemological short comings of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). CAM has received support from both philosophers, such as Rorty and Feyerband, and the Sociology and Anthropology of Medicine. The thesis will thus review both the internal coherence and the application of non-realist arguments, and counter non-realism with the realist epistemology and philosophy of science that is represented by C.S. Peirce’s pragmatism. Rorty and Feyerabend and others have developed radical forms of scientific antirealism in the latter 20th century. Subsequently, sociologists developed even more intractable forms of anti-realism, which they applied to the social study of science. This approach served to challenge the legitimacy of orthodox scientific practice (including EMB). A practical expression of this controversy was immediately identified in the question of the role of scientific authority in a democratic society. That question was immediately applied to the status of alternative medical systems and their legitimacy vis-a-vis EBM in terms of the controversy over what has come to be termed "medical pluralism": If scientific medicine has no particular authority, should other, medical systems, epistemically incompatible with EBM, be made available as well? The thesis will suggest that non-realism is in fact a marginal position within the philosophy of science. Scientists, medical researchers and medical practitioners may thus appeal to the philosophy of science in order to justify their authority in the face of challenges from CAM. However, it will be suggested that they are frequently ill-served by a reliance on a simplistic understanding of the philosophy of Karl Popper. An alternative will be proposed in the philosophy of C. S. Peirce. His pragmatism offers to medical research and medical practice a way of understanding and justifying the scientific process, a justification of realism in the face of non-realism, and a resource for the criticism of CAM and medical pluralism, as at once epistemologically ill grounded and potentially dangerous to patients and the general public.

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Walmsley, Jonathan Craig. "John Locke's natural philosophy (1632-1671)." Thesis, Boston Spa, U.K. : British Library Document Supply Centre, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=1&uin=uk.bl.ethos.286485.

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Bramstedt, Katrina Andrea 1966. "Formulating a philosophy of just care for the geriatric population amid the opportunities of modern medicine." Monash University, Dept. of Community Medicine and General Practice, 2002. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/8500.

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Svenaeus, Fredrik. "The hermeneutics of medicine and the phenomenology of health : steps towards a philosophy of medical practice /." Linköping : Tema, Univ, 1999. http://www.bibl.liu.se/liupubl/disp/disp99/arts187s.htm.

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Siven, Jacqueline Marie. "Yogic diffusion the effects of yogic practice and philosophy on beliefs about complementary and alternative medicine." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2011. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/5036.

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This research is a qualitative study that aimed to anthropologically explore the effects of consistent long-term yogic practice on the acceptance and practice of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among yoga practitioners at a South Florida yoga center. I wished to determine, through in-depth interviews, whether or not yogic practice affects acceptance of CAM. The main objective was to interview individuals from a single yoga center that have practiced yoga at least once per week for at least one year concerning their beliefs about CAM, yoga, and health. This project will begin to fill the gap in social science, in general, and specifically, the anthropological literature. Scholars of various backgrounds have discussed elements of yogic practice and philosophy that were integral to my understanding of the data. The health benefits of yoga as CAM, the associations between yoga and beliefs about health, and the association between yoga and Indian philosophy and medicine have each been explored. However, anthropological scholarship discussing the effects of consistent, long-term yogic practice on the acceptance of other CAM's or Western biomedicine has not been examined.
ID: 029809583; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (M.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-162).
M.A.
Masters
Anthropology
Sciences

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Bertucci, Paola. "Sparks of life : medical electricity and natural philosophy in England c. 1746-1792." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.365761.

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Traykova, Aleksandra Krumova. "Optimizing hybridism : a critique of naturalist, normativist and phenomenological accounts of disease in the philosophy of medicine." Thesis, Durham University, 2017. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12312/.

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This dissertation represents an investigative critique of the philosophical approaches to defining health and disease, going beyond pure conceptual analysis and straight into historical-philosophical analysis in an attempt to unpack the very discourse which underpins the discussion. Drawing on the notion of language as a medium of social instruction, it problematizes various specific features of the debate’s intellectual format, for example pointing out that its preoccupation with linguistic precision ought to be replaced with a focus on expressing the complex multidimensional nature of disease in a relatable manner. After presenting evidence of clinical reasoning’s inherent susceptibility to bias, the thesis exposes naturalism’s historical roots as an ideologically driven counter-reaction to nineteenth century vitalism, thereby discrediting the ideal of neutrality. Despite this skeptical start, it rejects eliminativist positions that philosophical attempts to produce health/disease definitions are pointless and unnecessary, and argues that the debate needs to be maintained due to such discussions’ important implications for medical and social identities, patient narratives, the negotiation of treatment objectives, or even the effectiveness of public health programmes (as a population’s inclination to comply with state-mandated public health measures is directly influenced by the notions it holds about health and disease). This is followed by an exploration of the conceptual limitations faced by the most commonly applied strategies of defining disease, after which their advantages are re-combined in an optimized hybrid account of disease supported by a philosophical distinction between the categories of ‘symptoms’ and ‘clinical signs’. Finally, this account is tested on a wide range of problematic cases, to ensure its capacity to deliver the promised results whilst also overcoming challenging influences such as the ones posed by bias, discursively shaped diagnostic labels, or unwarranted pathologization.

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Shelton, Paul Hunter. "The cook as physician : medical philosophy, nutrition, and diet in England, 1450-1650 /." Thesis, This resource online, 1990. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-08182009-040212/.

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Bridgman, Karen Elizabeth, of Western Sydney Hawkesbury University, and Faculty of Social Inquiry. "Rhythms of awakening : re-membering the her-story and mythology of women in medicine." THESIS_FSI_XXX_Bridgman_K.xml, 2000. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/385.

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This thesis is based on the stories of the lived experience of two groups of women, the first was a group of women healers, and the second, a group of academic women.Woven through the his-story of women in medicine are two myths-those of Inanna and Isis.The insights that have come from this study will give future women a path to travel to reclaim their past.Both science and scientific medicine are critiqued, and more holistic alternatives as part of this process are offered. The thesis has been constructed with a series of stories to acknowledge the uniqueness of each individual's experience.These stories provide the threads that weave the thesis together and are congruent with both the process of the making of meaning in our lives, and with our journeys toward healing.The study is embedded in both a social and feminist framework and that of depth psychology/mythology. It is based on feminist research methods and cooperative inquiry methodology and uses narrative for the recounting of the experience. It is also a heuristic inquiry that offers constructive critique using reflexive learning and explores the richness of difference in philosophies of healing and the experience of transformation.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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Terlizzi, Regina Helena. "As causas naturais a perspectiva da arte médica no Corpus Hippocraticum." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2016. https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/18914.

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Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2016-08-23T17:35:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Regina Helena Terlizzi.pdf: 1030683 bytes, checksum: 643882a701a65758ca594f16d9596dc4 (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-23T17:35:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Regina Helena Terlizzi.pdf: 1030683 bytes, checksum: 643882a701a65758ca594f16d9596dc4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-04
The Corpus Hippocraticum or Hippocratic Collection brings together a group of Greek medical treatises from V and IV centuries BC, among which we find the register of fundamental speeches from Hippocratic authors in defense of the existence of medical activity as art in Greek culture. The diversity of problems and the intensity of polemics from epistemological nature should be comprehended in the context of an intense intellectual activity, which reaches several domains of human knowledge and which characterizes the so-called Pericles century. In order to establish medicine as art, Hippocraticals must present the basis of the method which enabled them the advance in knowledge of natural causes for human diseases. As such knowledge supposes a series of notions elaborated by philosophy, cause (aitia) and nature (physis), there is an interweaving of matters and theories which positively brings both knowledge fields closer, until the point in which a categorical medical divergence is installed related to the philosophical method. The polemics, as the treatises certify, end up opposing, on one hand, those who defend the insertion of philosophical assumptions in medicine, according to which it could not go on without previous knowledge regarding human nature and the elements which constitute it; on the other hand, those who affirm that the existence of an old medicine which long ago could find its own means of investigation, therefore, should be considered standalone related to philosophy. As to better know the arguments level involved in these discussions, we will analyze four Hippocratic treatises where epistemological matter are approached in a more specific way: On the sacred disease, The art, On ancient medicine, On the nature of man
O Corpus Hippocraticum ou Coleção Hipocrática reúne um conjunto de tratados médicos gregos dos sécs. V e IV a.C., entre os quais encontramos o registro de discursos fundamentais de autores hipocráticos em defesa da existência da atividade médica como arte na cultura grega. A diversidade dos problemas e a intensidade das polêmicas de natureza epistemológica devem ser compreendidas no contexto de uma intensa atividade intelectual que alcança vários domínios do conhecimento humano e que caracteriza o chamado século de Péricles. Para estabelecer a medicina como arte, os hipocráticos devem apresentar os fundamentos do método que lhes permitiu o avanço do conhecimento das causas naturais das doenças humanas. Como tal conhecimento pressupõe uma série de noções elaboradas pela filosofia, causa (aitia) e natureza (physis), ocorre um entrelaçamento de questões e teorias que aproxima positivamente os dois campos de conhecimento, até o ponto no qual se instala uma divergência médica categórica em relação ao método filosófico. As polêmicas, como atestam os tratados, acabam opondo por um lado, aqueles que defendem a inserção de pressupostos filosóficos na medicina, segundo os quais ela não poderia avançar sem um conhecimento anterior sobre a natureza do homem e os elementos que o constituem, e por outro, aqueles que afirmam a existência de uma medicina antiga que há muito tempo soube encontrar os seus próprios meios de investigação e que, portanto, deve ser considerada autônoma em relação à filosofia. Para conhecermos o teor dos argumentos envolvidos nessas discussões, analisaremos quatro tratados hipocráticos onde as questões de ordem epistemológica são abordadas de forma mais específica: Da doença sagrada, Da arte, Da medicina antiga, Da natureza humana

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Nicolae, Daniel Sebastian. "A mediaeval court physician at work : Ibn Jumay''s commentary on the Canon of Medicine." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e8e53786-7e15-4cf9-928b-dd492a740acd.

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Ibn Jumay''s (d. c. 594/1198) commentary on the Canon of Medicine by Ibn Sīnā (d. 428/1037) occupies an important place in the history of medicine for it is the first Canon commentary written by a physician and thus stands at the start of a tradition extending over 500 years. In addition, it is a so-far neglected source for our understanding of mediaeval Islamic medicine. The present thesis analyses the commentary with the aims of (1) determining the methods by which the court physician composed his treatise and (2) understanding why Ibn Jumay' undertook to prepare a commentary on one of the most thorough medical compendia of the middle ages. Chapter One presents the biography of Ibn Jumay', reveals that his religion had little impact on his writings and surveys his library which played a pivotal role in the composition of the commentary. Chapter Two investigates Ibn Jumay''s methodology in the entire commentary; it reveals that with his philological and source-critical methods Ibn Jumay' wanted to establish an authoritative reading of the Canon and to demonstrate the high degree of his erudition. Chapter Three focuses on selected passages in the commentary in form of three case studies. Ibn Jumay''s comments on anatomy/dissection, assorted materia medica and headaches demonstrate the court physician’s reverence for ancient authorities and his quest to revive and refine their teachings. Chapter Four contextualises Ibn Jumay''s methods and agenda by comparing them to those of other relevant scholars of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The thesis concludes by arguing that Ibn Jumay''s commentary was part of his revival of the art of medicine and his attempt to gain power in the medical tradition by attaching his name to one of the greatest scholars of his time — the ra'īs Ibn Sīnā.

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com, dr_mccardell@yahoo, and Elizabeth Eve McCardell. "Catching the ball: constructing the reciprocity of embodiment from hardcopy." Murdoch University, 2001. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20051108.155958.

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This interdisciplinary dissertation is a study of the ways in which we sensually embody and experience ow world. It is a metaphilosophical account that begins within orporeality; indeed, it is suggested that this isthe place where the philosophic urge is argued, elaborated, and reflected upon. While many studies of embodiment tend to focus upon "the body" as object, cultural artefact, or text for cultural inscription, the approach used in this dissertation is with the incarnation (the making flesh) of interaction in particular socio-physical milieux. The shift is thus from investigation of bodies to bodying, from noun form to transitive verb of incorporealization. This shift is felt necessary in order to better understand the so-called dualisms of traditional Western philosophic thought: mindbody, self-other, self-world, nature-culture, etc., and Tantric inspired Eastern philosophies of self-all relationality. It will be suggested, taking the lead from Leder (1990), that these apparent dualisms are not so much "add-ons" to philosophies of being, but arise in the experiential body itself. This dissertation endeavours to rethink certain "givens" of everyday life, such as perception of time and space, place, enacted memory, having empathic feelings for others, and so on, from within bodily experience and occidental-oriental philosophies of being. Certain neurological disorders are examined for their way of deconstructing elements required to construct a meaningful incarnated life-world. The process of embodiment is not only what the body is, but what it does. My construction of what is necessary for embodiment studies therefore considers bodily praxes (cultural and individual), as well as the sensual, sensate experiences arising in the body. The image of a ball game is evoked in various ways throughout the dissertation not only because it well describes the dense layers of interaction and an emergent sense of bodiliness, but it also illustrates reciprocity and situatedness. This thesis is intended to contribute to the health sciences as well as cultural studies. It draws upon the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, J. J. Gibson's ecological psychology, neurological studies and case histories, and the Eastern tradition of Tantrism in its Mahayanist Buddhist and Taoist forms.

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Lee, Hong. "Biological Functionalism and Mental Disorder." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1334163116.

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Poole, Gail Frances. "Talking about tubes : attitudes of health care professionals." Thesis, [S.l.] : [s.n.], 1998. http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape8/PQDD_0028/MQ50857.pdf.

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Carnevale, Franco A. "Ethics and pediatric critical care : a conception of a 'thick' bioethics." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp01/MQ37101.pdf.

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Szebik, Imre. "Ethical questions in human germ-line gene therapy." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape8/PQDD_0023/MQ50891.pdf.

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Dyde, Sean Kieran. "Brains, minds and nerves in British medicine and physiology, 1764-1852." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.648694.

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King, Hillary S. "An Ethically Informed Consideration of the Use of a Waiver of Informed Consent in Emergency Medicine Research." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1366042483.

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Lotan, Gurit. "Physicians and cost containment : issues of disclosure." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape11/PQDD_0007/MQ44207.pdf.

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Hughes, Julian C. "Understanding dementia : a Wittgensteinian critique of models of dementia." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2000. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/4365/.

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How are we to understand dementia? The main argument involves an analysis (in Chapter 2) of intentional mental states, using Wittgenstein's discussion of rule-following, which suggests that such states demonstrate an irreducible, transcendental normativity. This externalist account of intentional mental states highlights the worldly embedding of practices. In Chapters 3,4 and 5, this analysis is applied respectively to the disease, cognitive neuropsychology and social constructionist models of dementia. Whilst clinically and scientifically useful, none generates an adequate account of normativity. The Wittgensteinian analysis supplies a constitutive (as opposed to causal) account that supports the notion of dementia-in-the-world (Chapter 6). A full understanding of dementia requires the human-person-perspective in order to accommodate all that dementia amounts to in the normatively-constrained world. The sub-plot considers our understanding of the person. Rather than the Locke-Parfit view, which stresses psychological continuity, the Wittgensteinian analysis supports the situated-embodied-agent view of the person (Chapters I and 6). This view and the notion of the human-person-perspective are mutually supportive, so that main and subplot both encourage a broader understanding. The works of Wittgenstein have acted as a primary source, with secondary literature commenting on his works. In discussing the models of dementia, I have cited primary sources. I have also considered philosophical works pertinent to the particular models, usually in connection with the mind-brain problem. The thesis concludes that there is no single way to understand dementia, but any understanding will be from the human-person-perspective, in accord with the situated-embodied-agent view and reflecting an externalist construal of intentional psychological states. This has implications for further research in philosophy, medical ethics and gerontology. The unique application of the Wittgensteinian philosophical analysis to clinical reality suggests an approach to people with dementia that stresses personhood in the context of embedded, embodied histories and continuing relationships with others.

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Draper, Peter. "Promoting the quality of life of elderly people in nursing home care : a hermeneutical approach." Thesis, University of Hull, 1994. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:3927.

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The research described in this thesis addresses two central issues. The first issue concerns the development of a series of practice standards that will promote the quality of the lives of older people who live in nursing homes. However, before this professional issue is addressed, it is necessary to explore the meaning of the underlying concept the quality of life, and this constitutes the second issue.The purpose of this research is therefore to develop a concept of the quality of life that can adequately support a series of practice standards. The thesis is presented in five parts. Part one outlines the theoretical context of the study. It contains two chapters. The first discusses philosophical hermeneutics, which forms the conceptual and methodological framework of the research; and the second reviews aspects of the literature of the quality of life and evaluates it in terms of the purposes of the research. Part two of the thesis describes the empirical phase of the research, including the approach to data collection and the analytical strategy that was used. In part three the findings are presented, and in part four their implications are discussed for the organisation of care, and practice standards are derived. Part five evaluates the research, paying particular attention to the usefulness of philosophical hermeneutics, and suggestions are made for further research.

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Walker, Wendy Marina. "Witnessed resuscitation : a conceptual exploration." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2010. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/880/.

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This study was designed to explore the concept of witnessed resuscitation. This was achieved through a serial approach to conceptually based research that systematically and incrementally developed understanding of the meaning of witnessed resuscitation in the context of emergency resuscitative care for adult victims of cardiorespiratory arrest. Theoretical investigation provided a strong conceptual foundation of existing knowledge and gave direction for further inquiry. Existential investigation comprised a hermeneuticphenomenological study to explore the phenomenon of lay presence during an adult cardiopulmonary resuscitation attempt. Lived-experience material was subjected to thematic analysis and was revealing of five concepts that represented the essential nature of the lived experience. The concept of exposure emerged as the essence of this phenomenon. Research findings derived during theoretical and existential investigation were compared by adapting a method of template comparison. This process culminated in a synthesised conceptualisation of the meaning of witnessed resuscitation of a higher level of abstraction. Ongoing research is needed to determine whether this ‘state of the art’ conceptualisation of witnessed resuscitation holds its boundaries when applied to alternative phenomena, contexts and disciplines. Priority should be given to exploring the application of this concept in the context of patient and family-centred end-of-life care.

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Lucas, Abigail Rose. "Childhood anxiety, working memory and academic performance." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2011. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/197295/.

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The aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between anxiety on Working Memory (WM) performance and academic achievement. Research has highlighted negative effects of anxiety on cognition showing effects on both WM performance (e.g. Shackman et al., 2006; Schoofs et al., 2008) and academic tasks (e.g. Gumora & Arsenio., 2005). Research has aimed to understand the conditions under which anxiety impacts on cognition through considering the role of different threat manipulations on the interrelationship between anxiety, WM and academic performance (e.g. Owens et al., 2008). This has led to further research examining the role of implementing universal anxiety based interventions and WM skills training within both clinical and non-clinical samples to counteract the negative impact of anxiety on school performance. Following previous research (e.g. Shackman et al), the current thesis highlighted that spatial WM was selectively impaired by a physical threat in those who experienced increased levels of physiological arousal (study 1), and levels of worry impaired verbal WM under the same threat (studies 1 and 2). In addition, verbal WM was selectively impaired when individuals with increased levels of worry experienced a social threat (study 3). Both CBT interventions and WM training was shown to improve WM and academic performance (study 4) and CBT treatments decreased the level of anxiety and worry experienced (study 4). With future research in mind, considering the benefits of implementing universal CBT and WM treatment programmes to reduce the detrimental effects of increased anxiety and poor working memory on academic performance is crucial for young people to achieve their best in an academic environment

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Smethurst, Daniel George Jan. "The dynamic status of actin in the regulation of environmental sensing and homeostatic control in Saccharomyces cerevisiae." Thesis, University of Kent, 2014. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/47991/.

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Actin is a highly conserved protein in eukaryotes which forms dynamic cytoskeletal structures. Rapid remodeling of actin filaments is important for the regulation of a broad range of critical cellular processes. The cytoskeleton is acutely responsive to stresses and there are multiple interactions between actin and signaling pathways, positioning it centrally to a cells ability to adapt and respond to their environment. Here I provide further evidence that a dynamic actin cytoskeleton regulates processes including endocytosis, mitochondrial respiration, and signal transduction. Results presented here show that actin is embedded in the signaling networks which control the responses to environmental change. Change to the dynamic status of actin modulates the activity of the transcription factor Ste12p which regulates both the mating and filamentous/invasive growth responses. The activity of these pathways are linked to cortical patch organisation, and our data suggests that there is crosstalk between multiple pathways. I propose that the links between actin dynamics and environmental sensing pathways leave it well positioned for a role as a biosensor. Actin dynamics is altered by changes in internal or external conditions, leading to adapted of cellular responses which may provide a protective function for a population.

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Shillito, Alex Benjamin. "How the Heart Became Muscle: From René Descartes to Nicholas Steno." Scholar Commons, 2019. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7939.

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This dissertation addresses the heartbeat and the systems of natural philosophy that were used to explain it in the 17th century. Thus, I work in two domains of explanation. The first domain is physiology, in which William Harvey correctly ordered the heart’s systolic and diastolic motions, while René Descartes incorrectly reversed them. By looking at Harvey and Descartes’ more complete physiological models I reconsider the controversy that spun out of their divergent accounts. The second domain is the junction of physics and metaphysics, representing the frameworks of natural philosophy behind physiology. I argue that Harvey’s physiology was correct while his supporting principles were “wrong,” and Descartes’ physiology was incorrect while his supporting principles were “right.” Thus, my thesis is that Harvey was “right” but perhaps for the wrong reasons, while Descartes was “wrong” but perhaps for the right reasons. Of course, this judgement is made from a contemporary perspective. By using a contextualist approach to history, I aim to show how the controversy between Harvey and Descartes resolved in Nicolas Steno, when he discovered that the heart is a muscle.

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Ferro, David L. "Selling Science in the Colonial American Newspaper: How the Middle Colonial American General Periodical Represented Nature, Philosophy, Medicine, and Technology, 1728 - 1765." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/27585.

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This study examines the character of colonial American newspaper science to understand how and to what extent the newspaper contributed to the movement of information between those engaged in science and the public. It explores the issue of the origins of science and the press in America and characterizes the public role of enlightenment science in articles and advertisements pertaining to matters of health, invention and the natural world. The focus is on the mid-Atlantic region of colonial American newspapers including all the extant issues of the Pennsylvania Gazette, Maryland Gazette, Virginia Gazette, and American Weekly Mercury between the years 1728 to 1765. This study aims at informing the discussions of Enlightenment thought in colonial America and the role the newspaper played in the public acceptance of the processes of natural philosophy. The findings reveal that in the eighteenth century the colonial American newspaper became the textual locus through which the negotiations of what would and would not constitute acceptable public explanations of numerous subjects, including natural phenomena, were played out. Along with the public lecture, the newspaper became a primary device where actors and artifacts made legitimizing natural claims to a larger audience and enlisted allies in both scientific and broader disputes. In this way the American colonies paralleled Britain which had seen an increase in the public witnessing of an empirical natural philosophy and an appeal to economic and social gain for that philosophy since the late seventeenth century. In order to enroll a broader constituency, natural philosophers used the newspaper to argue for the value of rational and empirical exploration and its products in everyday affairs, matters of state, and even entertainment. Despite the negotiation through the pages of the general periodical, and despite the lack of strong differentiation between "virtuosi" and "lay" philosophers, the newspaper seldom became a principle place of exchange for the theory and practice of science between those doing science. With some notable and interesting exceptions, the public infrequently became privy to vanguard scientific theory and scientific disputes or enjoyed direct participation through the newspaper. Nevertheless, in eighteenth-century British America, the drive for public acceptance of natural philosophical explanations by those engaged in its explorations made the representative power of the newspaper critical to the success of science. By promoting an empirical view of the world the newspaper helped create a contemporary science, science communication and a society, that to varying degrees accepted the practices of science.
Ph. D.

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Soares, S?nia. "Medicina filos?fica: as rela??es entre medicina e filosofia na Gr?cia antiga e em Kant." Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 2008. http://repositorio.ufrn.br:8080/jspui/handle/123456789/16456.

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This work deals with the relationship between medicine and philosophy, which has existed since Antiquity, and will also be discussed here from Kant s perspective. It presents the historical context formed by reciprocal influences of common notions regarding health/disease, balance/justice, and just measure, which are present in the medical discourse as much as in the philosophical one. It considers that Hippocratic medicine emerges from concerns about dietetics, thus creating the link between philosophy and medicine, which is important for our analysis on Kant s contributions to Hippocratic legacy. Taking into account these considerations, the work distinguishes between two aspects which are associated within the dietetics presented by Kant in his work The conflict of the faculties, studied here in the light of his Doctrine of virtue, particularly the duties to oneself in regard the care of one s body and the teleological conception. In this sense, the work indicates the role of Kantian thinking not only to enrich medical dietetics, by lending to it moral value, but also to enrich philosophy by highlighting its therapeutic effects
Este trabalho trata da rela??o entre medicina e filosofia que se estabeleceu desde a Antiguidade, e ser? aqui discutida tamb?m no pensamento de Immanuel Kant. Apresenta o contexto hist?rico de influ?ncias rec?procas em que no??es comuns sobre sa?de/doen?a, equil?brio/justi?a, e justa medida permearam tanto o debate m?dico como o debate filos?fico. Considera que a medicina hipocr?tica surgiu da preocupa??o com a diet?tica, o que faz desta o campo de interse??o entre a filosofia e a medicina, importante para a an?lise das contribui??es de Kant ao legado hipocr?tico. A partir disso, o trabalho destaca dois aspectos que aparecem associados na diet?tica proposta por Kant na obra O Conflito das Faculdades, analisada aqui ? luz da sua Doutrina da Virtude, notadamente os deveres para consigo, sobretudo no que se refere ao cuidado com o corpo e a concep??o teleol?gica. Nesse sentido, indica a import?ncia do pensamento de Kant n?o apenas para enriquecer a medicina no ?mbito da diet?tica, por revesti-la de import?ncia moral, como tamb?m para enriquecer a pr?pria filosofia, atribuindo-lhe um efeito terap?utico

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Lizama, Natalia. "Afterlife, but not as we know it : medicine, technology and the body resurrected." University of Western Australia. School of Social and Cultural Studies, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0186.

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This thesis contends that technologically-derived resurrections of human bodies and bodily fragments can be viewed as indicative of a 'post-biological' ontology. Drawing from examples in which human bodies are resurrected, both figuratively and actually, this thesis puts forward the term 'post-biological subject' as an ideological framework for conceptualising the reconfiguration of human ontology that results from various medical technologies that 'resurrect' the human body. In this instance, the term 'postbiological', borrowed from Hans Moravec who uses it denote a future in which human being is radically disembodied and resurrected within a digital realm, is used somewhat ironically: where Moravec imagines an afterlife in which the body is discarded as so much 'meat', the post-biological afterlife of the body in this thesis centres around a form of corporeal resurrection. Corpses, living organs and excreta may all be resurrected, some of them in digital format, yet this kind of resurrection departs radically from the disembodied spiritual bliss imagined in many conceptualisations of resurrection. The post-biological subject resists ontological delineation and problematises boundaries defining self and other, living and dead, and human and nonhuman and is fraught with a number of cultural anxieties about its unique ontological status. These concerns are analysed in the context of a number of phenomena, including melancholy, horror, monstrosity and the uncanny, all of which similarly indicate an anxious fixation with human ontology. The purpose of discussing post-biological bodies in relation to phenomena such as melancholy or the uncanny is not to reinstate as ideological frameworks the psychoanalytic models from which these concepts are derived, but rather to use them as starting points for more complex analyses of postbiological ontology. The first and second chapters of this thesis discuss instances in which the human body is posthumously modified, drawing on Gunther von Hagens's Body Worlds exhibition and the Visible Human Project. The Body Worlds plastinates are situated in a liminal and ambiguous ontological space between life and death, and it is argued that their extraordinary ontological status evokes a form of imagined melancholy, wherein the longed-for and lost melancholic object is a complete process of death. In the case of the Visible Human Project, it is argued that the gruesome and highly technologised process of creating the Visible Male, wherein the corpse is effectively dehumanised and iv rendered geometric, evokes the trope of horror, while at the same time being fraught with a nostalgic longing for a pre-technological, anatomically 'authentic' body. The third and fourth chapters of this thesis discuss instances in which the living human body is reconfigured, focusing on immortal cell lines and organ transplantation, and on medical imaging technologies such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. In the third chapter it is argued that organ transplantation and the creation of immortal cell lines give rise to profound anxieties about ontological contamination through their capacity to render permeable the imagined boundaries defining self, and in this way invoke the monstrous. The fourth chapter interrogates the representation of medical imaging in Don DeLillo?s novel White Noise, arguing that the medical representation of the body functions as a form of double, a digital doppelganger that elicits an uncanny anxiety through its capacity to presage death.

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Holman, Bennett Harvey. "The fundamental antagonism| science and commerce in medical epistemology." Thesis, University of California, Irvine, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3727347.

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I consider the claims made by medical ethicists that funding by pharmaceutical companies threaten the integrity of medical research and the claims of philosophers of science that evidence-based medicine can provide a sound epistemic foundation on which to base medical treatment decisions. Drawing on both game theory and medical history, I argue that both medical ethicists and philosophers of science have missed crucial aspects of medical research. I show that both veritistic and commercial aims are enduring and entrenched aspects of medical research. Because these two drives are perpetually pulling medical research in different directions, I identify the resultant conflict as the fundamental antagonism

The primary task of the dissertation is to provide a framework that incorporates both drivers of medical research. Specifically, I argue that medical research is best conceived of as an asymmetric arms race. Such a dynamic is typified by a series of moves and countermoves between competing parties who are adjusting to one another's behavior, in this case between those who seek to make medical practice more responsive to good evidence and those whose primary motivations are instead commercial in character.

Such a model presents three challenges to standard evidential hierarchies which equate epistemic reliability with methodological rigor. The first is to show that reliability and rigor can (and do) come apart as a result of the countermeasures employed by manufactures. This fact suggests that in considering policy proposals to improve epistemic reliability, it is robustness (i.e. resistance to manipulation) that should be the crucial desideratum. The second consequence is a reorientation of medical epistemology. One of the primary strategies that manufacturers have employed is to manipulate the dissemination of information. A focus on an isolated knower obscures the impact that industry has in shaping what information is available. To address these problems medical knowledge must be understood from a social epistemological framework. Finally, and most importantly, the arms race account suggests that the goal of identifying the perfect experimental design or inference pattern is chimerical. There is no final resolution to the fundamental antagonism between commercial and scientific forces. There is only a next move.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Medicine and Philosophy'

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