Medicine and morals in the enlightenment : John Gregory, Thomas Percival and Benjamin Rush / Lisbeth Haakonssen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Haakonssen, Lisbeth, author.

Series:

Clio Medica ; 44.

Clio Medica ; 44

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medical ethics--History--18th century.

Medical ethics.

Medicine--Europe--History--18th century.

Medicine.

Gregory, John, 1724-1773.

Gregory, John.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Atlanta, Georgia : Rodopi, [1997]

Summary:

Modern medical ethics in the English-speaking world is commonly thought to derive from the medical philosophy of the Scotsman John Gregory (1725-1773) and his younger associates, the English Dissenter Thomas Percival (1740-1804) and the American Benjamin Rush (1745-1813). This book is the first extensive study of this suggestion. Dr Haakonssen shows how the three thinkers combined Francis Bacon's and the Scottish Enlightenment's ideas of the science of morals and the morals of science. She demonstrates how their medical ethics was a successful adaptation of traditional moral ideas to the dramatically changing medical world especially the voluntary hospital. In accounting for the dynamics of this process, she rejects the anachronism that modern medical ethics was a new paradigm.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

1. Interpreting Eighteenth-Century Medical Ethics

Etiquette and Monopoly

Sympathy and Contract

A New Interpretation

2. John Gregory: Medical Ethics and Common Sense

Personality and Profession

The Art and Science of Medicine

Duties of a Polite Profession

3. Thomas Percival: The Duty of Public Office

Character and Context

Medical Ethics and Medical Practice

4. Benjamin Rush: Medical Ethics for a New Republic

Character and Connections

Medical Science

Medicalized Ethics

Epilogue

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

94-012-0023-8

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789401200233 DOI