Explaining Disease: Philosophical Reflections on Medical Research and Clinical Practice

This interdisciplinary monograph in philosophy of medicine examines models of explanation in health science and their relation with current medical trends, such as personalized and person-centered medicine. Medicine has provided challenging case studies for the generalphilosophy of science that have prompted rethinking of a wide range of philosophical notions- such as scientific law, theory and evidence - and contributed to the elaboration ofpluralistic approaches to modeling, causality and explanation. The health sciences have increasingly recognized the role of philosophy of medicine as both a field of conceptual andmethodological reflection, capable of addressing practical issues, and hence relevant for aproper understanding of the construction of medical knowledge, modeling practices,therapeutic strategies and preventive decisions. 'Explaining Disease' contains various case studies in medicine to describethe assumptions underpinning the construction of explanatory models of diseases. It shows the impact different explanatory strategies can have on practical matters, which in turn affect clinical evaluation and therapy and public health decisions. The book concludes with a few open-ended reflections to foster more thorough considerationof the role of philosophy of medicine can play its dialogue with the health sciences.