Is medicine hermeneutics all the way down?
Several recent publications have suggested that hermeneutics, the method of literary criticism, might prove to be useful in medicine. In this essay I consider this thesis with particular attention to the claim that medicine "is hermeneutics all the way down". After examining an anti-positivist critique of positivist medicine and arguing that hermeneutic interpretation involves a more radical critique of modern medicine, I examine the supposed consequences of hermeneutical universalism: relativism, skepticism and antirealism which further evaluation reveals to be only potential consequences of hermeneutics. A brief discussion of phronesis and of the possible "texts" of medicine concludes the article.
Cooper
M W
MW
University of Texas Health Center, Division of Cardiology, Tyler 75710.
D015510:Clinical Medicine; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005086:Existentialism; D006808:Humanism; D006801:Humans; D008128:Logic; D012586:Science