https://doi.org/10.4081/mem.1996.894
Anthropology at the basis of medicine: an old and up to date debate
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
The history of medicine has been constantly punctuated by a lively debate on what medical knowledge is, on what the correct practice of the knowledge is, and on whether and how that practice can be integrated from an anthropological point of view. This constant call for the humanization of medical assistence betrays the deep need for medicine which concentrates on man and not on his disease. This is a very old need since already in the 5th century B.C. the differences between the medical school of Cos and that of Cnido concerned exactly this question.
After providing a brief history of medicine, from this point of view, the author shows how with the identification and the spreading of the scientific and quantitative method, since the 17th century the tecnical, economical and sociological aspects have prevailed over the aspect regarding relationships. While in his opinion it is in the search for psycho-biological integration that the doctus et expertus physician in able to assert his sapientia, scientia and sapientia cordis which are intertwined. In this way the physician's relationship with his patient will be characterized not by a paternalistic of authoritarian attitude but by equal empathy.
Therefore it is a question of creating a tecnè which should rest harmoniously on two pillars: one of scientific knowledge and one of humanitarian ethos, therefore medicine making anthropology and technology coincide.
How to Cite
PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.
An Open Access Publication is one that meets the following two conditions:
- the author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.
- a complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.