Main description:

This textbook introduces the reader to basic problems in the philosophy of science and ethics, mainly by means of examples from medicine. It is based on the conviction that philosophy, medical science, medical informatics, and medical ethics are overlapping disciplines. It claims that the philosophical lessons to learn from the twentieth century are not that nature is a 'social construction' and that 'anything goes' with respect to methodological and moral rules. Instead, it claims that there is scientific knowledge, but that it is never completely secure; that there are norms, but that they are situation-bound; and that, therefore, it makes good sense to search for scientific truths and try to act in a morally decent way. Using philosophical catchwords, the authors advocate 'fallibilism' and 'particularism'; a combination that might be called 'pragmatic realism'.

Contents:

Science, Morals, and Philosophy; How and Why Does Science Develop?; What Is a Scientific Fact?; What Does Scientific Argumentation Look Like?; Knowing How and Knowing That; The Clinical Medical Paradigm; Placebo and Nocebo Phenomena; Pluralism and Medical Science; Medicine and Ethics; Medical Research Ethics; Taxonomy, Partonomy, and Ontology; Index of Names; Index of Subjects.