Tag Archives: philosophy of medicine

PhilMed RG Schedule (May–October 2026)

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The next set of readings will focus on philosophy of public health. As previously, each week there will be two online meetings of the group to discuss the same section of text, one on Wednesday night at 5pm BST, one on Thursday morning at 10am BST, in hopes of accommodating group members in a variety of time zones. There is no need to attend all meetings—please come when you can.

You can join the group here: https://groups.google.com/g/philmed-rg/

If you need the meeting links or have any other queries please contact Alex Broadbent or Elisabetta Lalumera.

Block 1

Week 1 — Wed 6 May / Thu 7 May

Grote, T. & Broadbent, A. (2023)
Machine Learning and Public Health: Philosophical Issues.
In S. Venkatapuram & A. Broadbent (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Public Health, pp. 190-204. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315675411-16

Week 2 — Wed 20 May / Thu 21 May

Steel, D. (2022)
Medicine and Public Health.
In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Public Health, pp. 27–39. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315675411

Week 3 — Wed 3 June / Thu 4 June

Smart, B. (2025)
The Goal of Public Health (Chapter 2, pp. 29–50).
In The Philosophy of Public Health: A Capacities Approach. Springer.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-98804-2_2

Week 4 — Wed 17 June / Thu 18 June

Smart, B. (2025)
Towards a Capacities-Based Principlism (Chapter 6, pp. 141–169).
In The Philosophy of Public Health: A Capacities Approach. Springer.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-98804-2_6

Week 5 — Wed 1 July / Thu 2 July

Venkatapuram, S. (2025)
Social Determinants of Health.
In The Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine. Springer.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2252-8_72

Block 2

Week 6 — Wed 30 September / Thu 1 October

Kukla, Q. R. (2024)
Healthism, Elite Capture, and the Pitfalls of an Expansive Concept of Health.
In A Pragmatic Approach to Conceptualization of Health and Disease, pp. 275–294. Springer.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-62241-0_21

Week 7 — Wed 14 October / Thu 15 October

Wilson, J. (2021)
The Right to Public Health (Chapter 6, pp. 110–125).
In Philosophy for Public Health and Public Policy: Beyond the Neglectful State. Oxford University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192844057.003.0006

Week 8 — Wed 28 October / Thu 29 October

Wilson, J. (2021)
Measuring and Combatting Health-Related Inequalities (Chapter 9, pp. 184–204).
In Philosophy for Public Health and Public Policy: Beyond the Neglectful State. Oxford University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192844057.003.0009

Book Panel: The New Modern Medicine, by Jonathan Fuller

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Thursday, 14 May 2026, 15:00 – 16:30 BST | Online

In The New Modern Medicine: Disease, Evidence, and Epidemiological Medicine (OUP, 2025), Jonathan Fuller examines contemporary scientific medicine and its distinctive philosophical problems, particularly problems brought about by the integration of modern epidemiology into medicine. In this book panel, guest respondents will provide commentary on the book before the audience is welcomed into the discussion.

The New Modern Medicine is available to download open access: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-new-modern-medicine-9780190066147?cc=us&lang=en&#

Discussion Chair: Sarah Wieten, Durham University

Author: Jonathan Fuller, University of Pittsburgh

Respondents: Ross Upshur, University of Toronto; Jacob Stegenga, NTU Singapore; Nancy Cartwright, Durham University; Alex Broadbent, Durham University

This online event is organised by the Centre for Philosophy of Epidemiology, Medicine and Public Health, which is hosted by the Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University.

If you have any accessibility requirements, please get in touch with us at imh.events@durham.ac.uk.

This event is free to attend, please register via Microsoft Teams.

Philosophy of Medicine International Reading Group

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After a brief break we are resuming the Philosophy of Medicine International Reading Group! As previously, each week there will be two online meetings of the group to discuss the same section of text, one on Wednesday night at 5pm UK time, one on Thursday morning at 10 am UK time, in hopes of accommodating group members in a variety of time zones. There is no need to attend all meetings-please come when you can.

At the request of quite a few members, this term we are reading Jonathan Fuller’s The New Modern Medicine: Disease, Evidence, and Epidemiological Medicine (OUP 2026).

This text is available, open access, here: https://academic.oup.com/book/61541

Meeting times are as follows:  

1.      Wednesday Feb 11 5pm, Thursday Feb 12 10am, chapter 1 

2.      Wednesday Feb 18 5pm, Thursday Feb 19 10am, chapter 2

3.      Wednesday Feb 25 5pm, Thursday Feb 26 10am, chapter 3

4.      Wednesday March 4 5pm, Thursday March 5 10am, chapter 4

5.      Wednesday March 11 5pm, Thursday March 12 10am, chapter 5

6.      Wednesday March 28 5pm, Thursday March 19 10am, chapter 6

7.      Wednesday April 1 5pm, Thursday April 2nd 10am, chapter 7

8.      Wednesday April 8 5pm, Thursday April 9 10 am, chapter 8

9.      Wednesday April 15 5pm, Thursday April 16 10am, chapter 9

If you would like to join the group, sign up at: https://groups.google.com/g/philmed-rg/

The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Medicine

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We’re delighted that the Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Medicine has been published, the result of the efforts of over 30 philosophers from all over the world. The Handbook brings together leading thinkers to chart the evolving relationship between philosophy and medicine. Edited by Alex Broadbent, the volume examines core philosophical questions about health, truth, and evidence, alongside contemporary challenges including social justice, gender, race, and the ethics of artificial intelligence.

The handbook highlights the cultural diversity of medical traditions and the opportunities this creates for a richer philosophy of medicine. Many contributors advocate reform within both philosophy and medicine, seeking to make each more responsive, humane, and self-aware. In doing so, the collection exemplifies one of CPEMPH’s guiding ideas: that reflection on medicine can and should change both medicine and philosophy for the better.

Philosophy of Medicine Reading Group (online)

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This term we will be tackling a variety of articles rather than a monograph. I hope this added flexibility can encourage new people to join, even if they cannot make the meeting every week.

Each week there will be two online meetings of the group to discuss the same section of text, one on Wednesday night at 5pm UK time, one on Thursday morning at 9 am UK time, in hopes of accommodating group members in a variety of time zones. There is no need to attend all meetings-please come when you can.

Schedule

May 21 and 22

Pappalardo F, Russo G, Tshinanu FM, Viceconti M. In silico clinical trials: concepts and early adoptions. Brief Bioinform. 2019 Sep 27;20(5):1699-1708. doi: 10.1093/bib/bby043. PMID: 29868882

May 28 and 29 

Serrahima, C., Martínez, M. The experience of dysmenorrhea. Synthese 201, 173 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04148-9

June 4 and 5 

Dings R, Strijbos DW. Being in a position to know: attuned responsiveness as the hallmark of experiential knowledge and expertise in mental healthcare. Front Psychiatry. 2025 Jan 13;15:1490489. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1490489. PMID: 39872434; PMCID: PMC11770679.

June 11 and 12

Zhou, J. (2025). Pregnancy Is a Survival Pathology: A Biostatistical Approach. Philosophy of Medicine, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.5195/pom.2025.214

June 18 and 19

Allen, H. (2024). Forsaking Fortune: Luck and Its Limited Utility to Cancer Diagnosis. Philosophy of Medicine, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.5195/pom.2024.188

June 25 and 26

Woodward, J., & Kendler, K. (2023). Polygene Risk Scores: A Philosophical Exploration. Philosophy of Medicine, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.5195/pom.2023.156

If you would like to join the group please go to https://groups.google.com/g/philmed-rg/

Covid Philosophy Week, 10-13 May 2021 – Registration Open

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The journal Philosophy of Medicine, the Department of HPS, Cambridge, and the Institute for the Future of Knowledge, U Johannesburg, bring you a multi-day programme of philosophical discussions responding to Covid-19. There are three events:

10-13 May, Conference: Philosophical Perspectives on Covid-19, hosted by Philosophy of Medicine and the Institute for the Future of Knowledge (UJ)

12 May, Workshop: The Individual and the Population, part of the series Rethinking the Ethics of Vaccination organized by Emma Curran and Stephen John (Cambridge HPS)

13 May, Panel: Philosophy of Medicine on Covid-19, hosted by Philosophy of Medicine and the Institute for the Future of Knowledge (UJ)

These events have been timetabled so that they do not clash and are accessible for as broad a range of time zones as possible.

Registration and further info for all three events available here: https://philmed.pitt.edu/philmed/CovidWeek

Warm regards,

The Editors, Philosophy of Medicine

https://philmed.pitt.edu/

1-day Conference: Philosophy in Medical Education, Tue 15 Sep https://philosepi.org/2020/09/14/conf-phil-med-edu/

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Conference: Philosophy in Medical Education

15th September 2020

Place:
Online, registration via eventbrite

The Sowerby Philosophy of Medicine Project at King’s College London invite attendees to a one-day online conference exploring theory and practice of teaching philosophy as part of the medical curriculum. This event is free, open to the public and all are welcome! Registered attendees will receive an access link shortly prior to the event’s scheduled start time. Please register by 8:30 AM on the 15th of September.

Programme
10:00 – 11:15Juliette Ferry-Danini (Paris) – “Considerations from the French experience: Why teaching philosophy should not mean humanising doctors.”
11:15 – 11:30Break
11:30 – 12:45Alexander Broadbent (Johannesburg) – “‘Either philosophy can make the difference between life and death, or it has no place in medical education.’ Discuss.”
12:45 – 13:45Lunch
13:45 – 15:00Raffaela Campaner (Bologna) – “What philosophical approaches in medical education? Theoretical and empirical issues.”
15:00 – 15:15Break
15:15 – 16:30Jonathan Fuller (Pittsburgh) – “Philosophy of medicine as a core discipline for learning the theory of medicine.”
16:30 – 17:00Concluding remarks: Alexander Bird (King’s/Cambridge)

General inquires can be directed to Harriet Fagerberg at harriet.fagerberg@kcl.ac.uk

Announcing a New Journal: Philosophy of Medicine

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We are thrilled to announce the launch of a new academic journal, Philosophy of Medicine. The journal’s website is live for submissions at http://philmed.pitt.edu.

Philosophy of Medicine is an open-access journal that publishes exceptional original philosophical research and perspectives on all aspects of medicine, including medical research and practices. Through its public-facing section The Examination Room, it also publishes content for the wider public, including health professionals and health scientists.

The mission of Philosophy of Medicine is to serve as the flagship journal for the field by advancing research in philosophy of medicine, by engaging widely with medicine, health sciences and the public, and by providing open-access content for all.

The journal is led by Alex Broadbent as inaugural Editor-in-Chief and Jonathan Fuller as Deputy Editor in Chief (see the full editorial team here: https://philmed.pitt.edu/philmed/about/editorialTeam). It is published by the University of Pittsburgh Library System through Open Journal Systems (OJS) with generous financial support from the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh and the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg.

Queries about the journal can be sent to phil.med@pitt.edu.

The editors of Philosophy of Medicine look forward to stewarding the journal through this exciting new phase in the development of our field.

Warmly,

Alex Broadbent and Jonathan Fuller

Co-Founding Editors

Philosophy of Medicine

Great piece from @JonathanJFuller ‘What’s Missing in Pandemic Models: Philosophy is needed to put the science of COVID-19 in perspective.’ In @NautilusMag #epitwitter

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http://nautil.us/issue/84/outbreak/whats-missing-in-pandemic-models

Jonathan Fuller writes: “In the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous models are being used to predict the future. But as helpful as they are, they cannot make sense of themselves. They rely on epidemiologists and other modelers to interpret them. Trouble is, making predictions in a pandemic is also a philosophical exercise. We need to think about hypothetical worlds, causation, evidence, and the relationship between models and reality.”

Read more…