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Education

Philosophy of Medicine

Data

Official data in SubjectManager for the following academic year: 2026-2027

Course director

  • Tuboly Ádám Tamás

    research associate professor,
    Department of Behavioural Sciences

Number of hours/semester

lectures: 12 hours

practices: 0 hours

seminars: 0 hours

total of: 12 hours

Subject data

  • Code of subject: OBF-OTF-T
  • 1 kredit
  • Biotechnology MSc
  • Optional modul
  • spring semester
Prerequisites:

-

Course headcount limitations

min. 5 – max. 20

Available as Campus course for . Campus-karok: BTK TTK

Topic

Philosophy of medicine means the special philosophical discussion of the most diverse aspects of medicine. In addition to ethics, numerous epistemological, metaphysical, ontological, and general methodological questions arise in connection with medical issues, all of which helps students to nurture a more reflexive, nuanced, and at the same time more comprehensive understanding of his/her profession. During the course, we will review different (naturalist-normative-hybrid) understandings of health-illness, the metaphysics of death, the methodological challenges of controversial diseases, the concept of objectivity and its relationship to non-scientific values, and finally, in the light of internal and external criticisms of medicine, we will examine what contemporary understandings of the medical profession exist.

Lectures

  • 1. Administration - Tuboly Ádám Tamás
  • 2. What is philosophy of medicine? - Tuboly Ádám Tamás
  • 3. The concept of health - Tuboly Ádám Tamás
  • 4. The concept of disease - Tuboly Ádám Tamás
  • 5. Criterion of Death - Tuboly Ádám Tamás
  • 6. The Metaphysics of Brain Death - Tuboly Ádám Tamás
  • 7. Controversial diseases 1. - Tuboly Ádám Tamás
  • 8. Controversial diseases 2. - Tuboly Ádám Tamás
  • 9. Objectivity and values - Tuboly Ádám Tamás
  • 10. Social Structure of Science - Tuboly Ádám Tamás
  • 11. Effectiveness and skepticism - Tuboly Ádám Tamás
  • 12. Gentle medicine - Tuboly Ádám Tamás

Practices

Seminars

Reading material

Obligatory literature

Jacob Stegenga (2018). Care and Cure: An Introduction to Philosophy of Medicine. The University of Chicago Press.

Literature developed by the Department

Notes

Recommended literature

-          Alex Broadbent (2019). Philosophy of Medicine. Oxford University Press.

-          McMahan, Jeff. 1995. “The metaphysics of brain death.” Bioethics 9(2): 91-126.

Conditions for acceptance of the semester

Active participation.

Mid-term exams

-

Making up for missed classes

By individual appointment.

Exam topics/questions

-

Examiners

Instructor / tutor of practices and seminars

Rólunk