This book sheds light on important philosophical assumptions made by professionals working in clinical and research medicine. In doing so, it aims to make explicit how active philosophy is in medicine and shows how this awareness can result in better and more informed medical research and practice. It examines: what features make something a scientific discipline; the inherent tensions between understanding medicine as a research science and as a healing practice; how the “replication crisis” in medical research asks us to rethink the structure of knowledge production in our modern world; whether explanations have any real scientific values; the uncertainties about probabilistic claims; and whether it is possible for evidence-based medicine to truly be value free. The final chapter argues that the most important question we can ask is not, “How can we separate values from science?” but, “In a democratic society, how can we decide in a politically and morally acceptable way what values should drive science?” Key features: introduces complex philosophical issues in a manner accessible to non-professional academics; critically examines philosophical assumptions made in medicine, providing a better understanding of medicine that can lead to better healthcare; integrates medical examples and historic contexts so as to frame the rationale of philosophical views and provide lively illustrations of how philosophy can impact science and our lives; uses inter-connected chapters to demonstrate that disparate philosophical concepts are deeply related (e.g., it shows how the aims of medicine inform how we should understand theoretical reasoning).

Essays , poems, and other short works on Heidegger, Nietzsche, the ontological argument, Hegel, Schopenhauer, logic, the philosophy of religion, the philosophy of art, socialism, metaphysics, and the principle of sufficient reason

Essays and other short works on Hegel, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Burke, Stepelevich, Schopenhauer, Plotinus, Mary Walker, Edgar Bauer, mental imagery, the principle of sufficient reason, special collections librarianship, psychiatry, time, contract bridge, etc.

The Brothers Karamazov is a passionate philosophical novel set in 19th century Russia, that enters deeply into the ethical debates of God, free will, and morality. It is a spiritual drama of moral struggles concerning faith, doubt, and reason, set against a modernizing Russia, with a plot which revolves around the subject of patricide.

Since the 1970s I have pursued three separate but overlapping and sometimes simultaneous careers: (1) philosopher / writer / teacher / historian of the long nineteenth century, 1789-1914; (2) editor / translator / photographer / publisher / biographer / encyclopedist; (3) cataloging librarian / rare books and special collections librarian / historian of medicine. Somehow these three vocations have garnered me some acclaim, even an entry in Who's Who in America. Each of them has resulted in some published or presented works. Because these works have been scattered in a wide variety of venues, some of which have gone out of print or have otherwise become generally unavailable - and of course with the oral presentations being gone as soon as they are given - I have thought it wise to select, epitomize, and bring them together in one place - here. Thus, what follows in these volumes is what I consider to be the most important of my shorter works. All translations are my own unless otherwise indicated.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book provides an introduction to the philosophical underpinnings of medical law and also deals with a number of topical issues, such as euthanasia, abortion, and privacy, which will be of interest to law and philosophy students and scholars.