L'approccio positivista alla filosofia della medicina: una review
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The article introduces a review of the issues considered by positivistic philosophy of medicine. To this purpose, firstly it's necessary to define the epistemological statute of the positivistic medicine, so that, secondly, it's possible to recognize the interests of the positivistic philosophy of medicine: its object, the illness, the different causal models that allow to explain the illness etiologia and the medic reasoning. Regarding the first field of research, the author tried to identify a taxonomy of the different philosophical and epistemological approaches adopted by the positivistic philosophy to define the illness and, pro opposita, the health. Once clarified that the positivistic thinkers started their reflection by nominalistic positions, the author examines the different standard of evaluation proposed by the different philosophies: objective, subjective, and sociocultural. Regarding the second field of interest, the author gives a synthetic picture of the different causal models proposes by positivistic philosophy of medicine: bio-physician or bio-experimental model, evolutionistic model, epidemiological or statistic model. Finally, regarding the third field of investigation, the author tries to remark that clinical and experimental medicine method is unique for positivistic philosophy of medicine, while the test techniques are different for them. Insofar, it is on this last problem list that the debate about medical reasoning is concentrated, coming to outline two different approaches of verification of diagnostic-therapeutic hypotheses: the probabilistic approach and effectiveness- based one.
How to Cite
Pennacchini, M. (2006). L’approccio positivista alla filosofia della medicina: una review. Medicina E Morale, 55(2). https://doi.org/10.4081/mem.2006.361
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