We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
The Autonomy Thesis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 May 2024
The chapter, informed by the Systematicity and Understanding Theses, discusses how understanding in medicine bolsters human agency. Rejecting the initial pathocentric proposal of medicine’s aim (Pellegrino 2001; McAndrew 2019; Hershenov 2020), it advocates the Autonomy Thesis that argues medicine’s goal is not merely treating disease, but promoting health to enhance autonomy (Christman 2009). It adopts a "positive" notion of health that is more than disease absence (Venkatapuram 2013; Nordenfelt 2017) and establishes its relation with well-being and autonomy. The chapter introduces a pluralistic view of health concept difficulties through the lens of "conceptual engineering" and refutes criticisms suggesting the Autonomy Thesis’s permissiveness. The investigation is confined to "mainstream medicine" (Broadbent 2019, ch. 1) and considers the internal morality of medicine (Brody and Miller 1998; Pellegrino 2001). It strives to define a broad yet rigorous aim of medicine that applies to various branches.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
