Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
For the deepest problems in healthcare, philosophy is the best medicine. In this podcast series, Jonathan Fuller, MD, PhD (University of Toronto) speaks to philosophers about their work on medicine and healthcare. You will hear from philosophers on the meaning and reality of disease, on their skeptical worries about evidence-based medicine, on current movements and controversies that shake medicine to its philosophical foundations. Visit our website at www.philosophersonmedicine.com.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ philosophy of medicine • concepts of health, disease, causation, realism • evidence-based medicine, uncertainty, expert consensus, clinical judgment • public health and COVID-19 • race in epidemiology • overdiagnosis • psychiatry, DSM, delusions • pregnancy metaphysics • vaccines, hesitancy, trustThis podcast explores how philosophical analysis can clarify foundational questions in medicine and healthcare. Through conversations with philosophers (and occasional clinicians and public health experts), it examines what concepts like “health,” “disease,” and “medicine” mean, whether diseases should be treated as real entities or as categories shaped by human purposes, and how different ways of classifying illness influence research and clinical practice. A recurring concern is how definitions and conceptual frameworks affect real-world outcomes, including disputed diagnoses and the problem of overdiagnosis.
Across the episodes, there is sustained attention to medical evidence and knowledge: what counts as evidence, why some methods (such as randomized trials and meta-analyses) are privileged, and how expert consensus statements function in an era of evidence-based medicine. The show also addresses challenges to confidence in medical interventions, highlighting worries about bias, methodological flexibility, and small effect sizes in contemporary research. Related discussions consider the nature of clinical judgment, including whether it is rule-governed, tacit, or virtuous, and how it might change under pressures from evidence-based practice or new technologies.
The podcast also connects philosophy of medicine to urgent social and public-health issues. Themes include decision-making under uncertainty during pandemics, scientific modeling and communication, and the relationship between public health institutions and the publics they serve. Other episodes analyze ethically and politically charged categories such as race in epidemiology, and investigate the conditions for public trust and vaccine acceptance. Psychiatric topics appear as well, with attention to diagnostic classification systems, delusions, and the conceptual challenges of mental disorder. Pregnancy is approached through metaphysical questions about the relationship between a pregnant person and a fetus and how such questions can shape broader debates in medicine.
| Episodes: |
|
Philosophy of Medicine on COVID-19 2021-Aug-28 |
|
Sean Valles - Race in epidemiology and medicine 2020-Jul-06 |
|
Jacob Stegenga - Medical Nihilism 2020-Jun-01 |
|
Miriam Solomon - Expert consensus in medicine 2020-May-04 |
|
Alex Broadbent - The causes of disease 2020-Mar-02 |
|
Evidence-based medicine 2020-Jan-06 |
|
Mental disorders and the DSM 2019-Nov-12 |
|
Marc Ereshefsky - Primer on health and disease 2019-Oct-06 |
|
Clinical Judgment 2019-Sep-02 |
|
Matthew Parrott - Delusions 2019-Aug-04 |
|
Elselijn Kingma - Metaphysics of pregnancy 2019-Jul-07 |
|
Mary Walker - Overdiagnosis and the definition of disease 2019-Jun-02 |
|
Jeremy Simon - Are diseases real? 2019-May-05 |
|
Maya Goldenberg - Vaccine hesitancy and public trust in healthcare 2019-Apr-06 |
|
Miriam Solomon - Pick your medicine: evidence-based, narrative, or precision? 2019-Feb-23 |
|
Alex Broadbent - What is medicine? 2019-Jan-27 |
|
Philosophers on Medicine - A New Frontier 2019-Jan-27 |