In medicine the understanding and interpretation of the complex reality of illness currently refers either to an organismic approach that focuses on the physical or to a 'holistic' approach that takes into account the patient's human sociocultural involvement. Yet as the papers of this collection show, the suffering human person refers ultimately to his/her existential sphere. Hence, praxis is supplemented by still other perspectives for valuation and interpretation: ethical, spiritual, and religious.
Can medicine ignore these considerations or push them to the side as being subjective and arbitrary? Phenomenology/philosophy-of-life recognizes all of the above approaches to be essential facets of the Human Condition (Tymieniecka). This approach holds that all the facets of the Human Condition have equal objectivity and legitimacy. It completes the accepted medical outlook and points the way toward a new `medical humanism'.

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Acknowledgements. The Theme. Editors' Introduction. Illness, Life, the Human Condition; A-T. Tymieniecka, E. Agazzi. Topical Introduction. Section I: Interpreting Illness and Medicine in the Context of Human Life: Experience vs. Objectivity. Illness as Lived Experience and as the Object of Medicine; E. Agazzi. The Construction of Illness: A Context Problem; C.T. Viesca. Defining Disease: Much ado About Nothing? J. Worrall, J. Worrall. Critique of Freud's Notion of Mental Illness; A. Grünbaum. Cancer from the Medical and Existential Point of View; M.V. Fiorentino. The Experience of Illness and the Meaning of Death; M. Reichlin. Section II: New Challenges to the Understanding of Medicine: The Ethical Parameters. Towards a New `Medical Humanism'. Application or Interpretation? The Role of Clinical Bioethics Between Moral Principles and Concrete Situations; P. Cattorini. Medicine as a Practice and the Ethics of Illness; R. Mordacci. Sense or Nonsense of Illness in Ethics of the Body; P. Kemp. The Loss of the Sense of Illness: Euthanasia and the Right to Die; R. Barcaro. Is it Possible to Give Sense to Illness; J. Ladrière. Towards a New Approach to Medical Humanism; L. Cassiers. Section III: The Life-Transcending Parameters in the Interpretation of Suffering, Death, and Human Existence: Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity. The Meaning of Suffering in Buddhism and Christianity; H. Barreau. The Christian Interpretation of Suffering; W. Pannenberg. La maladie dans la tradition juive. Orthodoxie et orthopraxie; M.R. Macina. La souffrance de Job; J.-M. Van Cangh. La sense de la maladie: Une perspective spirituelle chrétienne; E. Bianchi.La signification des miracles de Jésus; J. Doré. Index of Names.