Abstract

In 1992 Arthur Caplan published a paper arguing that the philosophy of medicine did not exist as a field of inquiry. He summarized his argument as follows:Caplan lamented the non-existence of the philosophy of medicine as a field of inquiry since many of the discussion in medical ethics/bioethics rely on contested concepts foundation to medical research and practice that need analysis. He also acknowledged that although there is no ‘philosophy of medicine’, there is considerable scholarly activity that can be described correctly as ‘philosophy and medicine’. Philosophy & Medicine is also the name of the book series in which this chapter is published, and which I co-edit. The question raised by Caplan in the title of his paper, a title which I have partly re-used for this chapter, can in the context of the book series be reformulated to: (1) Has Philosophy & Medicine ever published any ‘philosophy of medicine’, and if so (2) does Philosophy & Medicine constitute part of the canon of ‘philosophy of medicine’?