Author Description

Brings together classic and contemporary thinkers to examine the history, state, and future of ever-changing "concepts" in medicine. Divided into four parts--Historical Discussions; Characterizing Health, Disease, and Illness; Clinical Applications of Health and Disease; and Normalcy, Genetic Disease, and Enhancement: The Future of the Concepts of Health and Disease--the reader can see the evolutionary arc of medical concepts from the Greek physician Galen of Pergamum (ca. 150 CE) who proposed that "the best doctor is also a philosopher," to contemporary discussions of the genome and morality. The editors have recognized a crucial need for a deeper integration of medicine and philosophy with each other, particularly in an age of dynamically changing medical science--and what it means, medically, philosophically, to be human.