Classification, Disease and Evidence: New Essays in the Philosophy of Medicine (History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences Book 7)

This anthology of essays presents a sample of studies from recent philosophy of medicine addressing issues which attempt to answer very general (interdependent) questions: (a) what is a disease and what is health? (b) How do we (causally) explain diseases? (c) And how do we distinguish diseases, i.e. define classes of diseases and recognize that an instance X of disease belongs to a given class B? (d) How do we assess and choose cure/ therapy? The book is divided into three sections: classification, disease, and evidence. In general, attention is focused on statistics in medicine and epidemiology, issues in psychiatry, and connecting medicine with evolutionary biology and genetics. Many authors position the theories that they address within their historical contexts. The nature of health and disease will be addressed in several essays that also touch upon very general questions about the definition of medicine and its status. Several chapters scrutinize classification because of its centrality within philosophical problems raised by medicine and its core position in the philosophical questioning of psychiatry. Specificities of medical explanation have recently come under a new light, particularly because of the rise of statistical methods, and several chapters investigate these methods in specific contexts such as epidemiology or meta-analysis of random testing. Taken together this collection addresses the question of how we gather, use and assess evidence for various medical theories. The rich assortment of disciplines featured also includes epidemiology, parasitology, and public health, while technical aspects such as the application of game theory to medical research and the misuse of the DSM in forensic psychiatry are also given an airing. The book addresses more than the construction of medical knowledge, however, adding cogent appraisal of the processes of decision making in medicine and the protocols used to justify therapeutic choices. This Anthology Of Essays Presents A Sample Of Studies From Recent Philosophy Of Medicine Addressing Issues Which Attempt To Answer Very General (interdependent) Questions: (a) What Is A Disease And What Is Health? (b) How Do We (causally) Explain Diseases? (c) And How Do We Distinguish Diseases, I.e. Define Classes Of Diseases And Recognize That An Instance X Of Disease Belongs To A Given Class B? (d) How Do We Assess And Choose Cure/ Therapy?0the Book Is Divided Into Three Sections: Classification, Disease, And Evidence. In General, Attention Is Focused On Statistics In Medicine And Epidemiology, Issues In Psychiatry, And Connecting Medicine With Evolutionary Biology And Genetics. Many Authors Position The Theories That They Address Within Their Historical Contexts. Introduction -- Evolutionary Models Of Virulence: Concepts, History And Current Applications; Alizon, Sam And Méthot, Pierre Olivier.-objectivity, Scientificity And The Dualist Epistemology Of Medicine; Cunningham; Thomas -- The Function Debate And The Concept Of Mental Disorder; Steeves, Demazeux -- Defining Genetic Disease; Dekeuwer; Catherine -- Causal And Probabilistic Inferences In Diagnostic Reasoning: Casting A Historical Light Onto The Current Debates; Coste, Joël -- Risk Factor And Causality In Epidemiology; Giroux, Elodie -- The Naturalization Of The Concept Of Disease; Lemoine, Mael -- The Epistemology Of Mental Illness; Dominic Murphy -- Power, Knowledge And Laughter: Forensic Psychiatry And The Misuse Of The Dsm; Singy, Patrick -- Quality Assessment Tools For Evidence In Medicine; Stegenga, Jacob. Philippe Huneman, Gérard Lambert, Marc Silberstein, Editors. Includes Bibliographical References. Front Matter....Pages i-xx Objectivity, Scientificity, and the Dualist Epistemology of Medicine....Pages 1-17 The Naturalization of the Concept of Disease....Pages 19-41 What Will Psychiatry Become?....Pages 43-61 The Function Debate and the Concept of Mental Disorder....Pages 63-91 Emerging Disease and the Evolution of Virulence: The Case of the 1918–1919 Influenza Pandemic....Pages 93-130 Power, Knowledge, and Laughter: Forensic Psychiatry and the Misuse of the DSM ....Pages 131-145 Defining Genetic Disease....Pages 147-164 Causal and Probabilistic Inferences in Diagnostic Reasoning: Historical Insight into the Contemporary Debate....Pages 165-178 Risk Factor and Causality in Epidemiology....Pages 179-192 Herding QATs: Quality Assessment Tools for Evidence in Medicine....Pages 193-211 This anthology of essays presents a sample of studies from recent philosophy of medicine addressing issues which attempt to answer very general (interdependent) questions: (a) what is a disease and what is health? (b) How do we (causally) explain diseases? (c) And how do we distinguish diseases, i.e. define classes of diseases and recognize that an instance X of disease belongs to a given class B? (d) How do we assess and choose cure/ therapy?0The book is divided into three sections: classification, disease, and evidence. In general, attention is focused on statistics in medicine and epidemiology, issues in psychiatry, and connecting medicine with evolutionary biology and genetics. Many authors position the theories that they address within their historical contexts.00 The Debate Over the Definition of 'Disease' Is About a Pre-naturalized Term The Opposition of 'Naturalism' and 'Normativism' About Disease Is About a Pre-naturalized Term; The Consequences for Naturalism of Focusing on the Definition of a Pre-naturalized Term; A Sketch of What a Naturalized Definition Would Look Like; Questioning the Implicit Science-Philosophy Division of Domains; Inductive Approach to the Empirical Properties of Disease; Are There Features Specific to Disease in Explanatory Models?; Is Disease Definable at the Level of Theoretical Biology? A New Disease Template for Disease Sciences? Conclusion; References; What Will Psychiatry Become?; Introduction; The Medical Model; A Tradition of Computational Neuroscience; Modern Computational Neuroscience and Psychiatry; Levels, Mechanisms and Reduction; From Laws to Mechanisms; Two Responses; Psychology, Humanity and Science; References; The Function Debate and the Concept of Mental Disorder; Introduction; The Project for a Conceptual Analysis of the Concept of Mental Illness; The Origins of a Controversy; Two Modern Versions of the Broussais' Principle The Irreducible Complexity of Objectivity Scientificity and the Epistemology of Medicine; A Role for a Unified Epistemology of Medicine: Two Case Studies; Pathophysiology, Psychology, and Social Science in Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer; End-of-Life Care in the Intensive Care Unit and the Scientificity of Medicine; Conclusion; References; The Naturalization of the Concept of Disease; Introduction; The Naturalization of Scientific Language; Pre-naturalized and Naturalized Terms in Science; Naturalization; Lingering on a Pre-naturalized Definition The Philosophers' Attitude Towards the Psychiatry of Their Time Boorse's Populationist Approach; Psychiatry, a Legitimate Theoretical Enterprise; "There Can Only Be Mental Health if There Are Mental Functions"; Psychiatry, Between Body and Mind; The Delimitation Issue: The Bio-statistical Approach; Wakefield's Essentialist Approach; The Harmful Dysfunction Analysis; "Black Box Essentialism"; The Unity of the Concept of Function; The Heuristic Value of HDA; The Troubled Waters of Essentialist Inference ... ; Conclusion; References