Medicine's crucial concern with health is perennial, but its reflection, concepts, means change with the advance of science and social life. We present here a fascinating panorama of current medical discussions with their philosophical underpinnings, and queries as they have evolved from the past. The role of Tymieniecka's phenomenology of life is brought forth as the system of philosophical reference.

Autorentext
Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka is a Polish-born American philosopher, one of the most important and continuously active contemporary phenomenologists, founder and president of "The World Phenomenology Institute".

Inhalt
Acknowledgements. Introduction. Part I: Logic of Medicine. Two Models of Medical Knowledge; Z. Szawarski. The Logics of Medicine: Discovery and Evaluation; K. Wildes. The Structure of Medical Knowledge and Reasoning; J. Doroszewski. The Significance of Alternative Medicine' for the Philosophy of Medicine; J. Widder. The Phenomenological Aspects of Mental Disorders; P. Mróz. Illness as Evil and Illness as Good; J. Hartman. Aesthetics of Medicine. Essay on the Borderline of Aesthetics, Art History and the History of Medicine; M. Golaszewska. Medicine and Art; G. Podraza-Ucinska. Part II: Conceptions of the Human Being. The Zapping Animal. Oscillating Images of the Human Person in Modern Medicine; H. ten Have. New Biomedical Developments and their Impact on the Legal Theory and Practice of the Mind-Body Relationship; C. Byk. A Human Being - a Cosmic Being; M. Kudelska. The Philosophical Foundations of Yoga Therapy; M. Jakubczak. To Be (Alive) or to Have (Good Health); K. Gibinnski. Worship - Autonomy - Responsibility. (Wo)Man and Death in the Second Half of the 20th Century; K. Szewczyk. Existential Values; J. Lipiec. Is Personalism an Adequate Moral System for Bioethics? The Test Case of Artificial Insemination; M. de Wachter. Part III: Ethics of Medicine. From Abortion to Euthanasia: Rethinking the Value of Life at the End of the Christian Age; T. Engelhardt. Changing Values in Contemporary Medicine; R. Barnet. Clinical Decisions, Impaired Capacity and the Public Interest; D. Evans. Advance Directives: Self-Determination, Physician's Responsibility, Value Of Life; H.-M. Sass. The Ethical Problems of Doctors's Decisions: ThePatient's Autonomy and Paternalism; B. Maroszyńska-Jezowska. Some Remarks on Quasi-surrogate' Decision Making;J. Jaśtal. Justice and Beneficence in Deficiency Medicine; A. Alichniewicz. The Media and Health; I. Fiut. Part IV: The Polish School of Medicine. The Polish School of Medicine; Lessons from the Past; I. Löwey. Forerunner of Contemporary Philosophy of Medicine; J. Kaluźa, W. Szumowski. Annex.