Medicine and Philosophy

“It is a lame creature who calleth himself a physician and he be void of philosophy and know her not.”  (Paracelsus, 1493—1541) 

My formal background in Philosophy consisted of one undergraduate Intro to Philosophy course, which was the most numbingly boring class I ever took.  I was assigned two papers for that class, one on Hobbes and one on Kant. The only all-nighters I ever pulled in college, were writing those awful papers.  I agonized over those papers, knowing as I wrote them that they made no sense. I recently reread them. They still make no sense.  Yet, I got an A in the class which only confirmed for me, at the time, that Philosophy was a lot of bull.  Philosophy was off my radar for many years thereafter.

It was during my psychiatry residency, I realized there was a gap in my education, a gap that my background in science and in psychology could not fill.  I wanted to better understand my patients.  I wanted to know the degree to which my patients had no choice but to do as they did. Was their behavior determined?  Where there is no choice, there can be no blame. Or, did they have choice, free will?  Where there is choice, there is accountability.  And I wanted to be consistent.

I wanted to know more about the mind and the brain.  How does thinking arise from matter?  I wanted to know more about human nature.  Are we inherently good or evil or neither?  I wanted to understand how we know what we know.  What can we know for certain?  What makes for a good and meaningful life?  An ethical life?  After all, as Socrates admonished, “the unexamined life is not worth living.”  My interest in philosophy was rekindled.

This winter I will be back in the classroom, teaching a new course, Medicine and Philosophy, to a group of senior medical students.  For most of them, it will be their introduction to philosophy. I will look back on the experience of my introductory course and try not make the same mistakes. My task ahead is to make philosophy as meaningful, interesting and exciting to a group of skeptical medical students, as it is now for me.

The introductory class I’m planning will not be a historical survey of philosophy nor will it be taught didactically.   My class will be constructed on two premises. First, everyone is a philosopher.  Second, philosophy is not passive, it is an activity.  In class, we will do philosophy.

Everyone is a philosopher.  Some just need help putting their beliefs, their values and their opinions into words. The first task in class will be for each student to begin to articulate their philosophies. Once that has begun, we will proceed with the work of philosophy.  I will provide some basic tools, tools that date back 2500 years to the time of Socrates and Plato, and they will be asked to critically examine, refine and sharpen their thoughts.

The over-arching goal of this course Medicine and Philosophy is for students to develop and expand their critical and creative reasoning, and along the way, learn to apply the critical and creative thinking of philosophy to sound medical practice.  I want no student physician in my class to ever be accused of being a lame creature, void of philosophy.

Philosophy comes from the Greek roots phylos meaning to love and Sophia meaning wisdom. I will teach a class about wisdom and hope they love it as much as I.

That’s lesson plan one.  Only fifteen more to go.