A Philosophical Disease - Bioethics, Culture, and Identity

Drawing on the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein and novelists such as Walker Percy, Paul Auster and Graham Greene, A Philosophical Disease brings to the bioethical discussion larger philosophical questions about the sense and significance of human life.
Carl Elliott moves beyond the standard menu of bioethical issues to explore the relationship of illness to identity, and of mental illness to spiritual illness. He also examines the treatment of children born with ambiguous genitalia, the claims of Deaf culture, and the morality of self-sacrifice. This book focuses on a different sensibility in bioethics; how we use concepts, and how they relate to our own particular social institutions.

List of contents

Chapter 1 Notes of a Philosophical Scut Monkey: The Bureaucracy of Medical Ethics; Chapter 2 You Are What You Are Afflicted By: Pathology, Authenticity and Identity; Chapter 3 Lost at the Mall; or, The Use of Prozac in a Time of Normal Nihilism; Chapter 4 Puppet-Masters and Personality Disorders: Psychopathology, Determinism and Responsibility; Chapter 5 Nothing Matters: Depression and Competence in Clinical Research; Chapter 6 What’s Wrong with Living Heart Transplantation?; Chapter 7 The Point of the Story: Narrative, Meaning and Final Justification; Chapter 8 A General Antitheory of Bioethics;

About the author

Carl Elliott is Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics. He is co-editor with John Lantos of The Last Physician and editor of Slow Cures andBad Philosophers, both forthcoming.

Summary

Drawing on the work of writers such as Wittgenstein, Walker Percy, Paul Auster and Graham Greene, this book brings to the bioethical discussion larger philosophical questions about the sense and significance of human life.

Product details

• Authors: Carl Elliott, Elliott Carl
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 18.11.1998
• EAN: 9780415919395
• ISBN: 978-0-415-91939-5
• No. of pages: 224
• Weight: 570 g
• Series: Reflective Bioethics
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, MEDICAL / Ethics, PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, PHILOSOPHY / Metaphysics, Philosophy, Ethics & moral philosophy, Philosophy: metaphysics and ontology, Ethics and moral philosophy, Medical ethics and professional conduct