title: Medicine as an essentially contested concept.
abstract: W B Gallie's notion of essentially contested concepts remains of philosophical interest. I argue that medicine is one such concept and look at the consequences of this as regards the inappropriateness of looking for definitions and necessary and sufficient conditions to settle debates about what medicine is and is not.
authors.affiliation: School of Philosophical Studies, Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. philosophy@qub.ac.uk
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McKnight
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D008954:Models, Biological; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D012945:Social Values; D009626:Terminology as Topic