PHIL 186 - Philosophy of Medicine

Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)

(Same as STS 186) How does medicine look at and see the body? What kind of body does it envision, and what the means by which it locates within the space of the body that which threatens the body’s organic unity? This six-week course engages in the philosophies of medical perception and diagnostic practices. From the constitution of health and disease in a body, the discovery of illnesses (as a category, and located in the body), to the construction, via legislation, of a healthy society (body-politic), and the use and abuse of metaphors of disease, this course examines the ways in which medical science fashions its object of study, discovers and diagnoses buried beneath the symptom the movements of disease, and aims to treat the body of the individual and society from the constant threat of illness.

Readings include authors such as: Georges Canguilhem, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Annemarie Mol, and Susan Sontag. Required work includes reading, short weekly writing assignments, class participation, and attendance. Osman Nemli.

Second six-week course.

Two 75-minute periods.