Philosophy and Medicine

Medical science has historically always contained a certain philosophical component, requiring a dialectical approach to the study of the human body, both in normal and in pathology. Egyptian medicine was the forerunner of intellectual understanding of problems to create a healthy lifestyle of people. A thousand years later, Greek medicine linked its fate with philosophy.

Despite the different directions of activity and different ways of searching for the truth, both of them solve the same problem – the problem of the survival of humanity, the self-determination of man as a natural and cultural being, making it morally meaningful.  

Medicine almost always faces problems that philosophy can provide answers to. It is the philosophy of medicine and pharmacy that develops and improves dialectical thinking - the pinnacle of the skill of medical personnel.

The philosophical culture allows physicians to overcome one-sidedness in their approach to the problems under study in the context of increasing highly specialized scientific and practical activities.

Without relying on the theoretical provisions of philosophy - research on philosophical anthropology, problems of cognitive activity - it is impossible to create a coherent theoretical basis for modern medicine. The clinician will be able to act expediently only when he will rely not only on private knowledge, but also on the knowledge of the general laws of the body. Philosophy forms modern scientific, logically coherent thinking.

The development of medicine provides a huge material for the latest discoveries in the study of the vital activity of the human body in normal and pathological conditions, as well as for the confirmation of philosophical laws.

In the modern world, medicine is undergoing a process of profound transformation. This is evident in the relationship between the methods of medicine and philosophy. The methods of the medical sciences, with all their diversity and perfection, cannot fully provide knowledge of the vast wealth of normal and pathological phenomena and their interdependence. But the philosophical method cannot replace the special methods of medical science. Modern philosophical research (philosophical anthropology, social philosophy) is the basis of the medical theory of adaptation – the general biological theory of medicine. Today, the medical reality even more than in the past needs a philosophical understanding, which is designed to help all doctors understand the essence of the system-complex nature of the relationship between a person and the surrounding world, the determination of health and disease in the cultural and social aspect of the development of the modern world.

Master`s degree student I course Botakoz Yergaliyeva; Scientific adviser, professor Danat Zhanatayev,  Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty

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