This study will develop the basis for a critique of western medicine aimed at providing an analysis, starting from the proposition that any system of medicine must necessarily embody a mysterious quality. What is meant here by mystery is an all-encompassing element of indeterminacy, and so of uncertainty in both the theory and practice of medicine. This analysis will therefore begin by examining the relationship between mystery and medicine. More specific aspects of western medicine will then be considered to show how they have developed so as to produce a reinterpretation or marginalisation of all that is not quantifiable or wholly comprehensible in terms of a particular conception of rationality. The insights ignored gained from this re-evaluation will then be used to develop the outline of a different critique which will indicate ways in which western medicine should be modified in both theory and practice. This will begin the recognition that although the present justification of western medicine is flawed, a more adequate one may be found through re-examining current medical practice and re-orientating it by taking account of particular themes in other contemporary and historical systems of medicine. The unrecognised thread which unites and gives coherence to all these medical systems is the role of mystery. It must be wholeheartedly acknowledged if the current mistakes and problems of western medicine are the revealed and understood, so that more plausible moral and scientific foundations for western medicine can be established.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:637090 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Greaves, D. A. |
| Publisher | Swansea University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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