Moral Theory and Medical Practice

Moral Theory and Medical Practice aims to bring the practical needs of medicine closer to the theoretical interests of philosophy. While most work in the field of medical ethics has been concerned with the examination and solution of practical dilemmas, this book explores the potential benefits of philosophical analysis. By drawing directly on moral theory, philosophical analysis can help to resolve difficulties in the practice of medicine and psychiatry that arise from the obscurity of our concepts of illness and disease. The author provides a specifically philosophical contribution to an improved clinical practice, in particular in showing a new way of understanding the clinically problematic concepts of psychosis and delusion. He examines both mental and physical illness as evaluative concepts, and argues convincingly that our notion of mental illness is indeed value laden (as in anti-psychiatric theories), and reconciles these two traditional extreme views within a general theory encompassing both. This book will appeal to students and scholars of philosophy, especially those concerned with medical ethics, medicine, law, politics, sociology, social work and nursing.